Iran becomes a full member of the SCO

India hosted the last summit of leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), made up of India itself, Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran, since the New Delhi meeting formally admitted the Islamic Republic, which has become a full member of the group in its own right. 

Created in 2001, the SCO, which brings together more than half of the world's population, focuses on regional security, the fight against regional terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism, and these issues were discussed at the leaders' meeting organise by New Delhi.  

The Islamic Republic of Iran became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, according to the final declaration of the heads of state summit. "The member countries stressed the historic significance of the admission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the SCO as a full member state," the document said.

"I am happy that today Iran joins the SCO family as a new member. I therefore convey my best wishes to President Ebrahim Raisi and the people of Iran," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during the inaugural address.  

Iran's inclusion in the SCO group serves the Ayatollahs' regime to overcome its international isolation. In fact, the Persian country has made some political moves in recent times to overcome this political isolation, such as exerting some influence on the most radical Palestinian Shiite groups like Hamas or Islamic Jihad in order to get them to relax their hostility towards Israel, the eternal political enemy of Palestine and the Iranian state, something that could benefit its image in the eyes of other countries like the United States and the international community, as some media outlets such as Al-Arab have pointed out; or the latest political rapprochement towards one of its great regional rivals, Saudi Arabia, the great standard-bearer of the other important branch of Islam, the Sunni. A rapprochement that led to the announcement by the Saudi kingdom and the Persian country to reopen their respective embassies. Saudi Arabia decided to break off relations with Iran in 2016 after the attacks on diplomatic delegations on Iranian territory, and thanks to the mediation of China, an important member of the SCO, the two countries recently resumed diplomatic relations. 

The decision for Iran to join the SCO was taken at the last leaders' summit in Uzbekistan in September, after the eight permanent members unanimously approved Iran's entry as a full member. Iran, which submitted its application to join the SCO in 2008, began the membership process in September 2021 and has now been able to complete it.  

This geopolitical space has also helped Russia feel more secure in the face of widespread international condemnation for more than a year since its determination to invade Ukraine. Narendra Modi also welcomed the "signing of the memorandum of commitment for Belarus" to join the SCO in the future. Belarus is a loyal ally of Vladimir Putin's Russia, even supporting the Russian state in its invasion of Ukraine. In this way, Belarus will go from being a simple observer member of the SCO to a full member, as Iran has just done. The other nations with observer status are Afghanistan and Mongolia. There are six associate members: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey. 

Russia took advantage of the New Delhi meeting to thank its partners for their support following the rebellion by the Wagner Group, a private military group fighting for the Kremlin in the war in Ukraine, which posed a real challenge to the Russian state and threatened to escalate into civil war as thousands of Wagner Group troops marched towards Moscow. After the rebellion was put down, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin found a home in Belarus after Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko mediated to bring the situation back on track.  

On the occasion of the New Delhi summit, in his first speech at a world event after the Wagner Group incident, Putin stressed his support for "the actions of the Russian authorities in defence of the constitutional order, the life and security of citizens", as reported by the EFE news agency.

The SCO was established primarily to deal with regional security and counter-terrorism, two issues that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised, precisely in view of the regional border rivalry between Pakistan and India. "Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policies and harbour terrorists," the Indian Prime Minister declared, in a reproach that many have seen as directed at Pakistan.  

Pakistani leader Shehbaz Sharif condemned the use of terrorism "as a weapon to score political points" and stressed that "the sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism are unparalleled", as reported by EFE news agency.