The foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have decided to grant Iran full membership of the group. The decision came during a two-day meeting of the SCO in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Thursday and Friday.
The foreign ministers of China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan also reviewed the preparations for the meeting of the SCO Heads of States in Samarkand on September 15-16.
The SCO summit is expected to be attended by Chinese
President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin ¸ Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and other leaders of the grouping.
The Uzbek acting foreign minister, Vladimir Norov, said on Friday that the SCO summit is expected to admit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as its dialogue partners.
The foreign ministers welcomed the requests
of Bahrain and the Maldives to receive the status of dialogue partner in the SCO,
Norov said adding: "The parties are also actively considering Belarus' request
for full membership in the SCO."
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in
2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan are the current full members of the SCO. Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia are also observer countries.
International conference on Afghanistan
Before the SCO meeting,
Uzbekistan hosted an international conference on Afghanistan-related issues on
Tuesday, with the attendance of representatives from more than 20 countries and
regions and international organizations.
Officials, analysts and the international
community urged the US to unfreeze the assets and return all of the money,
which belongs to the Afghan people, to help overcome the humanitarian crisis in
the country, especially after a massive earthquake in June.
The assets are small in terms of the US economy,
yet they could be life-saving money for war-torn Afghanistan and its people,
Zhu Yongbiao, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at Lanzhou
University, told the Global Times on Friday said.
Previously, during a meeting on Afghanistan in
Tunxi, China's Anhui Province in April, regional countries agreed to support
Uzbekistan to host this international conference on Afghanistan issues and
since it has been more than 10 months since the Taliban formed the
caretaker government in Afghanistan.
The meeting in Tunxi was held by China in April
where foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighboring countries and the Taliban
met for discussions on the situation in Afghanistan.
The Tuesday conference was held several days
ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization which was held on July 28 to 29 in Tashkent.
Although it is hard to make concrete progress on major issues related to Afghanistan and there has no official recognition from the international community, the Afghan Taliban has been active in making interactions with other countries to improve its international status, the Chinese expert said.
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