Monday, October 29, 2018

Beijing supports full membership of Iran in Shanghai Cooperation Organization

By Javad Heirannia & Maryam Khormaei  

Tehran Times - October 28, 2018

Following is the full text of his interview with Tehran Times and Mehr News Agency: 
Q: What are the areas of integration between China and Iran? The two countries believe in multilateralism and disagree with U.S. shift towards unilateralism. For example, Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a good example of multilateral policy. Where does china stand on Iran's permanent membership in SCO?
A: In June this year President Rouhani visited China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in Qingdao. The meeting was a great success. We made very good progress to map the direction of the future development of the organization. President Rouhani played there an active role and made positive contribution to the success of the summit. Two presidents also held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit. They discussed intense cooperation between 2 countries. I think that the relationships between our countries are mutually complementary. It is for the benefits of two countries as well as our nations. So there is a great potential for two countries to work together. We can build on the previous achievements to make further progress in political, economic, security, cultural areas and people to people exchange.
You mentioned about the possible membership of Iran in SCO. I would like to say that during president Xi’s visit to Tehran, two leaders issued a joint statement in which China made its position quite clear on this issue. China would be happy to see Iran play a greater role in SCO and we support Iran to be a full member of the organization.  We wish to emphasize the bilateral economic cooperation. The cooperation between two countries are in line with obligations that each of us undertake. The cooperation is transparent and legitimate.