Need for Iran’s Increased Cooperation in D-8 Projects

BY: Kayhan Int’l

After an unexplained lull of several years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has begun to show renewed interest in activation of cooperation with economic blocs of which, in most cases, it is a senior member.

The latest indication in this regard is the visit to Tehran of the Secretary-General of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation and his meeting with the Iranian President and other senior officials.

President Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi in his talks with Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam took note of advances made by Iranian researchers in the fields of science and technology and said Iran is ready to share achievements with other members of the D-8.

He slammed the US for its opposition to the progress of developing countries, and stressing the need to increase the trade exchanges among the D-8 members, pointed out that the 8-member organization’s capacities for expansion of trade and transit of goods have remained unused.

The D-8, which is headquartered in Istanbul, was founded in the 1997 on the initiative of Turkey for boosting economic cooperation among the eight leading Muslim countries, including Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Nigeria.

The combined population of the eight countries is about 1 billion or 60% of all Muslims, or close to 13 percent of the world’s population and covering an area of 7.6 million square kilometers.

The volume of trade transactions among member states had reached its peak in 2010 totaling 68 billion dollars before gradual decline, mostly due to outside pressures, especially from the US which does not want any regional or Muslim bloc to flourish.

If all member countries stand by each other by ignoring – if not confronting – American pressures, there is no reason why D-8 cannot thrive and rise to greater heights, with intra trade increasing to several hundred billions of dollars.

It is to be noted that the main objective of D-8 is socio-economic development in accordance with the following 6 principles: Peace instead of conflict; Dialogue instead of confrontation; Cooperation instead of exploitation; Justice instead of double standard; Equality instead of discrimination; and Democracy instead of oppression.

These are the very principles that scare Washington and its clients which are spewing all sorts of poisonous propaganda against this particular grouping.

Nevertheless, the D-8 which is a forum with no adverse impact on bilateral and multilateral commitments of the member countries, emanating from their membership of other regional or international organizations, has remained active and seeks to make its impact felt through more cooperation among member states.

That is the reason Abdulqadir Imam is confident about the outcome of his visit to the Islamic Republic, which he described as an active member of the D-8, saying the Iranian cities of Tehran and Hamedan host two major institutions of the D-8.

Senior Iranian officials in turn highlighted to him Iran’s capabilities in different fields like nanotechnology, biotechnology, knowledge-based industries, agriculture and the technical and engineering services.

They also promised to implement different projects in member states, and have proposed creation of a permanent committee of communication and information technology at the D-8,

Thus, it remains to be seen what further benefits the Islamic Republic of Iran and its resistant economy would be gaining from increasing cooperation among the member states.