Iran joins SCO: Time for effective Square of Four

RIC and Iran can be a major bloc and upset US and NATO\

New Delhi:  Iran, which had an Observer status, formally was admitted into the Shanghai 

Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Friday, Sept 17, at Dushanbe in Tajikistan.

The Afghan Chaos

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first who greeted Tehran’s full membership, 

a fact widely acknowledged in the Iranian media too.

The full SCO membership in the pattern given to India and Pakistan in 2017 would 

henceforth give Iran the key opportunity to take a major step in regional cooperation. 

The new Iranian President Ayatollah Raisi had pledged ‘changes’ and arrival of a New Iran 

both in domestic and foreign context.

Iran’s relationship with the US and the western bloc has worsened in recent times.

However, the SCO membership makes it clear that any western attempt to ‘isolate’ Iran has 

been neutralised.

Experts also feel – India, Iran, China and Russia can make the SCO an integrated economic 

bloc to rival any such groupings especially inspired by western powers.

This is like a powerful square of four, suggests an Iranian expert.

The development can do a ‘balancing’ act in multilateral security, economic and cultural cooperation 

and checkmate the NATO influence in the region. 

The significance of the timing is also important as the western powers were virtually humbled 

in the heat and dust of Afghanistan only a fortnight ago.

As of now, Belarus, Mongolia and Afghanistan have observer status but no Taliban regime was invited 

for the Dushanbe event as SCO members have reservations about the new dispensation in Kabul.

Importantly, six other countries – Sri Lanka, Turkey, Nepal, Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan 

are ‘negotiating partners’ of the SCO which is generally seen as a body controlled jointly by Russia and China.

In the current structure of the SCO, Russia and China work together on commercial exchanges 

and border control.

India has a position of its own both in terms of economic powerhouse and in science and 

technology. As the RIC and BRICS constituents, New Delhi has been already working jointly on 

issues of mutual concern along with Beijing and Moscow.

Long term presence of US forces in Afghanistan and hasty withdrawal  has made it even more 

necessary for the SCO now to absorb ‘new’ security architecture and respond to challenges more 

independently, says Prof Fan Hongda at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai 

International Studies University.

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