Will Iran & Belarus Join SCO Soon?

Table of Contents

Question

Which of the below countries is a member of Shanghai cooperation organization (SCO)?

Select the correct answer from the code given below:

SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation.
It’s a Eurasian political, economic and military organisation aiming to maintain peace, security and stability in the region.
It was created in 2001. The SCO Charter was signed in 2002, and entered into force in 2003.
The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.

The SCO covers 40%of the global population, nearly 20% of the global GDP and 22% of the world’s land mass.
The SCO has a strategically important role in Asia due to its geographical significance – this enables it to control the Central Asia and limit the American influence in region.
SCO is generally seen as counterweight to the North NATO

Before to the creation of SCO in 2001, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan were members of the Shanghai Five.
Shanghai Five (1996) emerged from a series of border demarcation and demilitarization talks which the four former Soviet republics held with China to ensure stability along the borders.
In 2001, Uzbekistan was added to the grouping, the Shanghai Five was renamed the SCO.
India and Pakistan became members in 2017.

Structure of the SCO
- Heads of State Council
  - Deals Internal functioning and international relations
- Heads of Government Council
  - Deals with Budget & other economic interactions
- Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs
  - Deals with Day-to-day activities.
- Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS)
  - Combat terrorism, separatism and extremism.
- SCO Secretariat
  - In Beijing, its main job is to provide informational, analytical & organisational support.

Iran’s membership is final. The decision to admit Iran was made in 2021 Dushanbe summit.
Iran was an observer in the SCO since 2005.
Iran had applied for full membership to SCO in 2008 and again in 2010 but both the times it had been unsuccessfully.
Finally in 2021, things changed for Iran and it has accepted multilateralism.