Iran officially ascended to the permanent membership of the SCO in its recent summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This had a wide reaction in international media and many published their evaluation of Iran’s accession and its consequences.
Iran One Step Closer to SCO Membership
In an opinion titled “Iran One Step Closer to SCO Membership”, Nicole Grajewski of the Blefer Center for Science and International Affairs, affiliated Harvard University, wrote: “One year after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization approved Iran’s application for accession, the country is expected to take another step in the process by signing a Memorandum of Obligations at the September 15-16 SCO summit in Samarkand. Doing so would begin a year-long formal process for Iran to attain full member status.”
“Since its formation in 2001,” the opinion said, “the SCO has admitted new members only once before, when India and Pakistan’s applications were approved at the 2015 summit. The two countries went on to sign memoranda of obligations at the 2016 summit and be admitted as full members at the 2017 summit.”
The opinion added: “The standard memorandum that Iran will sign outlines the various obligations a country is expected to fulfill, including accession to SCO agreements and treaties such as the organization’s founding charter and its Convention on Combating Terrorism, Extremism, and Separatism.”
“Once it has met these prerequisites, Tehran will submit the instruments of accession to the SCO Secretariat in Beijing for approval. Although such requirements may seem stiff on paper, the fact is that the SCO’s institutional capacity for ensuring these agreements are actually fulfilled is limited to two permanent bodies—the Secretariat in Beijing and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure in Tashkent, neither of which has the legal capacity to enforce decisions. In any case, the precedent of India and Pakistan’s accession indicates that Iran will likely become a full member in summer 2023,” the opinion wrapped up.
SCO an anti-NATO entity
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in a memo by the same author. The following is some excerpts from the memo:
The SCO is often portrayed as an inherently anti-Western bloc, with some even calling it the “anti-NATO.” In practice, however, differences between member states have constrained the bloc’s policy coordination and regional integration since its inception. This is partly due to its insufficient bureaucratic capacity and its institutional design—the SCO is governed by consensus, which limits substantive cooperation. Hence, the organization functions more as a forum for discussion and engagement than a formal regional alliance akin to NATO or the European Union.
Even so, the SCO will presumably use Iran’s accession to feed its discourse about the organization’s growing global posture.
For their part, Iranian officials note that the accession process has already strengthened their country’s economic situation… In July, Customs Administration spokesman Ruhollah Latifi stated that Iran’s non-oil exports to SCO countries increased 20 percent in the second quarter of 2022, totaling $5.5 billion during that period. Tehran has also hosted several events dedicated to the commercial benefits of SCO membership.
Given the ongoing impasse with the West over nuclear talks and sanctions, Iranian officials have invoked involvement in the SCO as a means of legitimizing the government’s “Look East” policy.
This evolving interest in the SCO has often been portrayed as an outgrowth of Iran’s ties with Russia and China—most recently, the Ukraine war has deepened Tehran’s relationship with Moscow, while relations with Beijing have retained a prominent role under President Ebrahim Raisi.
Indeed, the SCO gives Tehran a diplomatic forum for pursuing closer ties to the region, a process previously hampered by policy incoherence and domestic constraints. For their part, Central Asian governments see Iran as a potential transit hub and an alternative to dependence on Russia.
To be sure, Iran’s participation in the Samarkand summit and budding accession to the SCO do not represent an institutional solution to the country’s international isolation. Yet both developments nevertheless bear watching as indicators of Tehran’s growing involvement and cooperation with countries that fall within the SCO’s sphere of influence.
SCO ascension effect on nuclear talks
CNN wrote in an article that Iran is set to formalize its relationship with the Global East, inching one step closer to joining the Sino-Russian axis as its nuclear talks with global powers falter.
The Islamic Republic of Iran on Wednesday signed a memorandum of obligations that will grant it full membership in the SCO, a climactic moment after a fifteen-year wait since it first applied to join the Asian body, which includes Russia and China, CNN added.
According to the article, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that expanding the Asian organization could help defy Washington's unilateralism, adding that thwarting "draconian" US sanctions required new solutions.
Turkey Aims for SCO Membership
The research media website Asia Financial said in a news article that Turkey aims for SCO membership after Iran’s successful accession.
NATO-member Turkey said it aims to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Saturday, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported.
“Our relations with these countries will be moved to a much different position with this step,” Turkey president Tayyip Erdogan said to reporters at the SCO summit. “Of course [membership], that’s the target.”
Turkey is currently a dialogue partner of the SCO, whose members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
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