Iran to become member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in July — Foreign Minister

Iran's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be completed in July, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday, Azernews reports, citing TASS.

"We will become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in July, when the next summit of the association is to take place," he said as quoted by the Tasnim news agency saying.

On September 15-16, 2022, Samarkand hosted the SCO summit, which was attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. The Islamic Republic signed a memorandum of commitment to obtain the status of a member state of the association.

The next summit will be held on July 4 under the chairmanship of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual format. As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India announced on Tuesday, all members of the organization will take part in the summit. Iran, Belarus and Mongolia were invited as observers. In addition, Turkmenistan is invited as a guest.