Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be completed in July, the country’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday.

“We will become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in July, when the next summit of the association is to take place,” he said as quoted by the Tasnim news agency saying.

On September 15-16, 2022, Samarkand hosted the SCO summit, which was attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The Islamic Republic signed a memorandum of commitment to obtain the status of a member state of the association.

The next summit will be held on July 4 under the chairmanship of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual format. As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India announced on Tuesday, all members of the organization will take part in the summit. Iran, Belarus and Mongolia were invited as observers. In addition, Turkmenistan is invited as a guest.

The declaration on the establishment of the SCO was signed in Shanghai in June 2001 by six states – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Currently, the organization also includes India and Pakistan. Observer states are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, dialogue partners are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.

Source: Agencies