Russia – Iran: Putin welcomed the “positive” development of relations between Moscow and Tehran

The Russian president Vladimir Putin hailed the “positive” development of relations with Tehran today during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Ibrahim Raishi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting, adding that he was doing “everything” for Iran to join the organization .

“At the bilateral level, our cooperation is developing positively,” Putin said in his conversation with Raisi in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where an SCO meeting is being held today and tomorrow.

“We are doing everything so that the Iran to become a full member of the SCO,” he continued, while adding that “our positions are close or the same on many issues.”

At the same time, the Russian president pointed out that 80 large companies will visit Iran next week.

“Next week we are sending a Russian delegation representing business circles to you (s.s. in Iran). A total of about 80 Russian companies will participate in it,” he explained, as reported by international agencies and relayed by the Athens News Agency.

Iran, merely an observer of the SCO since 2005, was accepted to join the organization at the previous session in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in 2021, and now hopes to finalize its integration at this session.

The SCO, whose members are China, the RussiaIndia, Pakistan and the former Soviet republics of central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), was created in 2001 as a tool for political, economic and security cooperation, competing with Western organizations.

It is not a military alliance, like NATO, or an integration organization like the EU, but its members work together to address common security challenges and to promote trade.

Iran waited more than ten years to join the SCO because many member countries did not want a country that has been sanctioned by the US and the UN because of its nuclear program to be a member of the organization.