Russia is very glad for Iran's joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a formality remains to complete the process, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on the margins of the SCO summit.
"We have done everything for Iran to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Our partners in this organization have supported your application, the last formality is left. It is indeed a formality, and Iran is joining this already serious, large and authoritative international organization," Putin said.
"And we are very happy about this," the Russian president stressed.
The current members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded in 2001, are India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The observer countries are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia; the partner countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka. The current SCO summit in Samarkand is expected to finalize the admission of Iran and grant the status of a dialogue partner to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Strategic relations
Moscow and Tehran have a strategic relationship, Raisi said. "We have the necessary will to develop our relations. We are not connected by usual relationships, but by strategic ones. Since they are strategic, we should develop our cooperation in political, economic and space spheres," he said.
This is Putin and Raisi's fourth face-to-face meeting this year. Before that, they met in January in Moscow, in June in Ashgabat on the margins of the Caspian summit and in July in Tehran at the summit in the Astana format.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS