As a continuation to the cooperation between the members of the SCO, on Thursday, the foreign ministers of the organization gathered in Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek to hold their 22th summit. The summit was the first one to the bloc since Iran was officially admitted to the bloc. The meeting discussed economic and trade and multilateral cooperation. It was concluded with several cooperation documents among the members.
Mohammad Mokhbar, the vice president of Iran, in his speech described as “unique” Iran’s logistics and transit opportunities, adding : “Accordingly, Iran is ready to create a comprehensive transit corridor to connect the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and in this regard, it has taken important steps in the form of the North-South Corridor which will facilitate full trade and economic access of the South and East Asian countries to Central Asia, Caucasus, Russia, Black Sea, and Europe.”
The vice president also pointed to the unique Iranian capacities in natural resources, specialized manpower, mining, transit, energy, and technology, adding that “any investment in Iran’s economic capacities and opportunities is a smart move.”
“With regard to its foreign policy goal for establishing a fair international order based on collective participation, the Islamic Republic of Iran has seriously put on its agenda active participation in multilateral arrangements like Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, Economic Cooperation Organization, and bloc of Caspian Sea littoral states,” Mokhber said when he pointed to the global transition from traditional unipolar world order to a new multipolar one in which all countries and new actors play their roles.
He mentioned the key factors for role playing in the emerging world order through cooperation with the SCO members, adding that to shape a fair global economic order, trade with national currencies or a common currency should be seriously considered and the members should seek expansion of national currencies especially crypto currencies to ensure establishment of a balanced, coordinated, and win-win economic development model.
In the main part of his speech, Mokhber made 13 proposals under the eight categories of corridors, economy, new technologies, food security, environment and climate change, energy security, regional security, and fight against terrorism ad radicalism. His proposals were welcomed by the official and observer members.
Accompanying the vice president to the meeting, Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Javad Oji said that the agenda of his ministry is to prepare the ground for providing petrochemicals and other products to the SCO members.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization consists of emerging Eastern powers led by China and Russia, which will play a central role in international trade in the new multipolar world order. The size of the economy of the bloc is about $20 trillion and includes half of the world’s population, and what distinguishes it is the existence of economic and geographical integration among its members as the largest producers of oil and gas such as Russia and Iran and large energy consumers such as China and India are present in it.
As part of its efforts to create a new multipolar global economic system and reduce the dollar’s dominance over the world financial system, China is seeking to attract more economically active countries to the organization in order to increase the bloc’s economic weight.
Iran’s corridor strategy for further benefit from SCO
Having in mind that over the past two years the SCO has prioritized the trade ties among the member states, by hosting over 5 international corridors that cross its soil, Iran can considerably help expansion of trade and economic partnership among the SCO members.
Since the trade ties within the framework of the SCO are overshadowed by China’s Road and Belt megaproject, Iran can play a major role in connecting European corridors to China. Should Iran expand the transit routes and railways, certainly China and other regional states put Iran in the center of their attention in pursuit of their plans.
In the past decade, the Chinese have tried to revive the old Silk Road by adding new routes, and with the war in Ukraine and the closure of Russia’s route to Chinese goods, Iran’s transit routes were put on the agenda as they can deliver goods to the destination with shortest possible time and highest security.
For Iran to turn into a linking ring between Asia and Europe, the administration of President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi has activated all the rail transportation routes crossing Iran, enabling Iran to attract a large part of the global trade. The visits to Iran of senior Russian, Chinese, and Central Asian officials over the past year all bear witness to the fact that Tehran will play a key role in connecting the SCO states to the foreign world.
Iran has a unique geographical location being at the crossroads of the world, which has turned it into a vital communication and transit center in the transportation of goods. Given the role that Iran plays in shortening the distances between the countries of the region in terms of trade, the North-South Corridor can bring many economic benefits. Since Russia’s borders with Europe are closed down, Iran’s rail routes will play a central role in connecting East Asian countries to Europe, as well as facilitating trade between China and Russia.
Iran has assured the SCO member countries that it will provide safe, reliable and stable routes under the North-South Corridor beside providing infrastructure for Chabahar Port that connects India to Central Asia, Caucasus and Europe. Therefore, the development and use of the capacity and infrastructure of this port can boost trade in the region. Tehran is also eager to develop the Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Corridor, which will connect cities such as Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat directly to the port of Chabahar.
Central Asian states also pay special attention to the transit routes to transfer their goods to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, and now that Russia’s borders are closed to Europe, they can use North-South Corridor to export their goods. These landlocked countries intend to achieve this long-standing dream through Iran.
Also, Central Asian countries, which, like Russia, see the European route lost, are looking for alternative routes to transfer their goods to other regions, and the most important of these routes is Iran, which can play an important role in these countries realizing their goals.
Iran’s energy to propel SCO
Given the SCO’s energy production and consumption that make it the largest bloc in these areas, Iran’s most important benefit is energy. Iran has the fourth largest oil reserves and the second largest gas reserves in the world, and since the government of President Raisi is seeking to turn Iran into an energy hub in the region, it needs preparations to achieve this goal. If Iran can develop its transit routes and bring more countries into this irbit, it can take the pulse of energy in the region in the future, and the member countries can also benefit from the vast Iranian energy reserves.
On the other hand, most of the member countries of the SCO are among Iran’s top ten trade partners, and trade with the members of this organization constitutes about 40 percent of Iran’s foreign trade, which provides a platform and an opportunity for the development of economic relations with these countries.
According to IRNA, Ruhullah Latifi, the spokesman of the Chamber of Promotion at the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade said that the value of trade of the SCO members with Iran in the first six months of this year reached $21.73 billion, growing 10 percent compared to the year before.
In addition, Iran’s SCO membership can strengthen the key security goals listed in Article 1 of the organization’s charter, namely jointly combating the “three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism”. Due to its successful experience in dealing with terrorism, Iran can play a key role in dealing with Afghanistan’s security concerns related to terrorism and drug trafficking.
For Iran, creating stability or minimizing the effects of terrorism or dispute in this country are among the top security priorities of Iran, and therefore through the SCO’s counterterrorism mechanism, Iran can take part in the biannual counterterror training and coordinate efforts with other members to fight the “three evils” in the region.
Iran’s permanent membership in the SCO and expanding economic cooperation with other members in addition to promoting effective role of Iran in the global trade will enhance the Iranian geopolitical position globally. Iran’s membership also fend off the American and Western plans to isolate and pressure Iran and at the same time opens new and wider trade and economic horizons. At political and strategic levels, Iran’s official standing by Eastern powers like China, Russia, and India will bolster its economy and helps it steer clear of making concessions in the nuclear talks with the West in return for sanctions relief.
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