Putin, Xi, Modi welcome Iran as 9th member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have welcomed Iran’s accession into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as the ninth full member of the influential security and trade alliance.

Iran gained full-fledged membership of the SCO on Tuesday, during the 23rd virtual summit of the SCO hosted by India, becoming the ninth member of the bloc, which also includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will now participate in our organization in a full-fledged format. I would like to extend congratulations on this occasion to the president of Iran, Mr. Ebrahim Raeisi, and sincere greetings to him,” Putin said during his address to the one-day-long summit.

“In less than two years, our Iranian partners completed all the necessary procedures and now our shared task is to help our colleagues to productively join in the multifaceted activities taking place within the framework of the SCO,” the Russian leader added.

Being a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defense bloc, the SCO boasts to be the world’s largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population, grouping around 40 percent of the world population in approximately 60 percent of Eurasia.