President Raisi is leaving today for Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to take part in the 22nd summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This will be Raisi’s second participation in the SCO summit since he took office. He will met his Uzbek counterpart and the leaders of other SCO member states.
The summit comes as Iran’s ascension to the full membership of the SCO is in progress and Raisi will sign some commitment memorandums during his Samarkand trip to begin the finalization process.
An organization for countering Western hegemony
The SCO is the successor to the Shanghai 5 which was established in 1996 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan to solve border issues. The group was rebranded as the Shanghai Cooperation Council or SCO in 2001 after Uzbekistan joined it. The SCO set a series of goals to counter terrorism, extremism, and separatism.
In 2017, India and Pakistan joined the SCO as permanent member. Iran had an observer status in the regional organization, but member states okayed Iran’s full membership request in last year’s summit.
The SCO incrementally gained gravity over time in the international arena and is now considered to be one of the most important entities in the world that has no Western presence, has not undergone the United States’ hegemony, and has itself turned into a vehicle for countering the West’s excessive demands.
The organization has also an economic significance, with the aggregated GDP of its member states accounting for 25 percent of the global GDP and their economy totaling 20 trillion dollars which is multiplied by 13 compared to 20 years ago.
The SCO was not originally intended to counter the West, but the United States’ adventurism and its exerting pressure on China and Russia, the two important founding members, led to the politicization of an organization that is simultaneously the biggest producer and consumer of energy in the world and has four atomic states as members.
The international organization covers 40 percent of the world’s population and the total of foreign trade of its members is 6.6 trillion dollars. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the SCO’s economy would surpass the G7.
Iran’s ascension to SCO
Permanent membership in the SCO has a procedure that takes two years to complete. Iran has been seeking to be a permanent member for 10 years and its request was finally accepted by all member states last year, when President Raisi was in Tajikistan to attend the SCO summit.
Iran’s permanent membership will be fully granted in 2023. Tehran has to sign nearly 50 documents, including memorandums of commitment and executive arrangements. Appointing a goodwill ambassador and signing good neighborliness agreements is on Iran’s agenda in this summit.
What does Tehran gain from SCO ascension?
Iran could have two types of motivations in its aspiration to join the SCO as a permanent member: political and economic. As a matter of fact, Iran’s membership in a high-profile international organization is indicative of the failure of the West’s sanctions and pressure policies. The ascension proves that the West’s goal of isolating Iran politically has failed to bear fruit, despite their propaganda.
Iran has also an economic incentive, as 30 percent of its foreign trade is done with SCO member states. The SCO member states have a high range of cultural commonalities with Iran, which allows for big opportunities in economy and tourism.
Balancing in diplomatic arena
The Raisi administration has been trying to create a balance in Iran’s foreign policy, making it clear that Iran’s relations with the world should not be limited to the West and its internal affairs should not be linked to the nuclear talks.
The pursuit of SCO membership can be interpreted in this context, as the administration has seriously focused on expanding ties with neighboring countries. This has also been welcomed by the countries in the region and the broader Asian continent.
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