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Repudiation of Iran’s bid for SCO membership is political, expert says

28 June 2016 13:56 (UTC+04:00)
Repudiation of Iran’s bid for SCO membership is political, expert says

By Fatma Babayeva

China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization rebuffed Iran’s bid for the membership despite Russia’s backing.

The reason why China is opposing Iran’s membership in the SCO is not an economic but rather a political issue, Kamran Dadkhah, associate professor of Economics at the Northeastern University told Azernews via email on June 24.

It seems that China has two political reasons for opposing Iran’s membership, noted the expert.

“First, there is the antagonism between Iran on the one hand and the United States and some of its Western allies (e.g., Canada) and some Middle Eastern countries bordering the Persian Gulf on the other,” Dadkhah said.

Professor went on saying that China has extensive trade and investment relationship with the United States.

“China cannot afford any disruption in these activities due to Iran belligerent acts toward the United States or its allies. Such acts could disrupt China’s and other SCO members’ economic dealings with the United States,” said Dadkhah, adding that the same goes for dealings with Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region.

Another political problem is that Russia and China are both members of the SCO but they do not always see eye to eye, further added the expert.

China considers itself the leading member of SCO, whilst Iran may side with Russia on both economic and political issues, said the expert by stressing that thus, at least at present, China is not enthusiastic about Iran’s membership.

“But with changes in Iranian policies and perhaps some assurances, this may change,” he added.

From an economic and trade point of view Iran will benefit from joining the organization, he said, highlighting that this is also true for the SCO and its members, including China.

“Iran has oil reserves, and it is a connecting route between East Asian countries and Central Asia as well as being a route to Europe,” he added.

Dadkhah underlined that China has always declared its support for the membership of Iran in SCO.

“Most recently, during Chinese President Xi Jinping trip to Iran in January, he and Iran President Hassan Rouhani signed a joint statement supporting Iran joining SCO,” said the expert, reminding that in the past, the main obstacle to Iran joining SCO was the sanctions, but they are lifted now.

During the summit recently held in Uzbek capital Tashkent, the SCO accepted India and Pakistan’s proposals to join the organization.

The SCO was established in 2001. Its members are China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia and Belarus are the observer-countries in the organization, while Turkey, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal are dialogue partners.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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