Iran could soon become a full member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russia’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
Sergei Lavrov was speaking at the joint SCO/Brics summit, a day after historic enemies India and Pakistan applied for membership of the Eurasian security bloc, UK daily Morning Star reported.
He told a press conference in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, that SCO would help the two countries overcome their differences and added that he welcomed the prospect of SCO summit approving Iran’s application.
“We proceed from the assumption that Iran, like India and Pakistan, has applied for full SCO membership,” he said.
“We are in favor of tomorrow’s summit endorsing this application, so that it is realized on the basis of the regular SCO membership criteria.”
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. The two leaders discussed settling negotiations with the P5+1 group of world powers over Iran’s nuclear energy program, as well as expanding trade and energy cooperation between the two countries.
Lavrov, who returned from nuclear talks in Vienna on Tuesday, said negotiators were close to a final agreement based on “a formula of ensuring Iran’s right to develop peaceful atomic materials, for clarifying all issues related to Iran’s nuclear program, and lifting all sanctions.”
SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
