Iran Signs Commitment Letter to Join SCO

Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Islamic Republic, tweeted on Wednesday that he had signed the agreement.

The top diplomat is traveling with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where the SCO conference is underway.

"Tonight, in the historical city of Samarkand, I signed the memorandum of commitments of Iran's permanent membership at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with the [body's] secretary-general," Amirabdollahian wrote in the tweet.

"Now, we have entered a new stage of diverse economic, commercial, transit, energy, etc. cooperation [with the body's member states]," the foreign minister added.

Amirabdollahian stated that Zhang Ming, the secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), congratulated Iran on its "permanent accession" and signature of the agreement and called it a "important development."

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was established in 2001 by China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, currently has eight official members and three observer governments, making it the largest regional market in the world.

In March, the organization and Iran officially began the procedure for Tehran to join the group. The Iranian government later accepted Iran's membership in the organization.

Also on Wednesday, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the Iranian government's spokesman, said draft legislation outlining Iran's membership in the organization had been submitted to Majlis (the Iranian parliament) for approval.

Before departing on the trip to Uzbekistan, President Raeisi referred to the prospect of Iran's formal accession to the SCO, saying the Islamic Republic was seeking to avail itself of "the infrastructure that exists in Asia and [in] the neighboring countries."