Iran to pursue membership of Russia, China-led bloc

TEHRAN, Sept 14 (Arab News): Iran intends to pursue membership of a Chinese and Russian-led bloc that is meeting in Uzbekistan this week, President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday as he prepared to head to the summit.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - made up of China, Russia, India, Pakistan and four ex-Soviet Central Asian countries - was set up in 2001 as a political, economic and security organization to rival Western institutions.
The summit set for Thursday and Friday in the Uzbek city of Samarkand is the first entirely face-to-face leaders' meeting since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
"One of the important acts of this summit will be the finalization of SCO (membership) documents and the legal process they will need to take in order to be signed by the foreign ministers of the member countries," Raisi said.
Iran, one of four SCO observer states, had applied for full membership in 2008 but its bid was slowed by UN and US sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.