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Iran's admission to SCO depends on adoption of all documents — foreign ministry

Bakhtiyor Khakimov also mentioned that at the initial stage, Iran should join the fundamental documents such as the SCO Charter, Treaty on Long-term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Extremism and Separatism

MOSCOW, September 23. / TASS /. Iran needs to adopt all the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)’s fundamental documents in order to speed up its accession to the organization, Special Envoy of the Russian President for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyor Khakimov said at an online briefing on Thursday.

"The accession process is not a one-time step. The procedure stipulates that the first step will be preparing the memorandum of obligations of the SCO candidate state. The document will be drawn up first by the SCO countries, then during talks, it will be further developed by Iran. After that, the next step will be Iran’s accession to the documents signed by the SCO," the envoy noted.

Khakimov also mentioned that at the initial stage, Iran should join the fundamental documents such as the SCO Charter, Treaty on Long-term Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Extremism and Separatism.

"Considering that all these documents are ratified, this process depends on domestic legislation and the requirements of the member states," the diplomat stated. "So, the pace of procedure can be very different, but the crucial thing is to work cohesively and remain interested. Whether the procedure will be speeded up or delayed, depends on how all modalities are coordinated."

On September 16-17, a meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council, led by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, took place in Dushanbe. As a result of the summit, some 30 documents have been adopted, bringing multifaceted cooperation to a new level. The participants greenlighted the beginning of Iran’s admission to the SCO, while Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were granted a Dialogue Partner status.