TEHRAN – The Russian president’s special representative for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Bakhtiar Hakimov has reiterated support for Iran’s full membership to the bloc, ISNA reported on Friday.

Hakimov reiterated Russia’s support for full membership during a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali.
 
In a meeting with Jalali in February, Hakimov had also said Russia supports Iran’s full membership in the SCO.

Hakimov and Jalali also exchanged views about fight on terrorism, countering unilateralism, and developing economic cooperation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has supported Iran’s full membership in the SCO.

“Iran is an observer and we are supportive of the Iranian request for full membership,” CNS News quoted Lavrov as saying in February during a speech at a geopolitics forum in New Delhi.

He added, “And most of the [SCO] countries support this request and I’m sure this would be satisfied.”

The SCO is a Eurasian political and economic organization that was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India are its main members, and Iran, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and Belarus are observers.

Iran applied for full membership in the organization on March 24, 2008. However, because it was under sanctions levied by the United Nations at the time, it was blocked from admission as a new member. The SCO stated that any country under UN sanctions could not be admitted. After the UN sanctions were lifted, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced its support for Iran’s full membership in the SCO during a state visit to Iran in January 2016.

NA/PA