An official with Iranian Ministry of Economy has said that Iran’s accession to Shanghai Cooperation Council can help energy cooperation as major energy suppliers are among SCO member countries.
Iran is a giant oil and gas supplier itself, and as there are other major energy powers in the SCO, Iran’s accession to the club could help further energy cooperation between the member states, Majid Karimi, the director of Economic Markets Studies Department of the Ministry of Economy said, noting that Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are among main oil and gas giants with Tajikistan being another SCO member with huge water resources.
He said that the presence of Russia and China as permanent members of the UN Security Council and India as an emerging economy in the SCO organization adds to the significance of Iran’s bid to join the club.
The official also noted that different countries try to become a member of key regional organizations so as to ensure the maximum fulfilment of their national interests with the least costs.
Iran has always tried to expand cooperation with different regional and global organizations and the country’s efforts to become an SCO member is in accordance with the government’s balanced foreign policy, Karimi stressed.
Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration Rouhollah Latifi announced early in May that the volume of trade between Iran and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has grown to over $37 billion in the past Iranian year (ended on March 20).
Bilateral trade between Iran and the SCO members last year was equal to 54,856,000 tons of goods, valued at 37.168 billion dollars, Latifi said.
That marked a 33-percent increase compared to the year before, he added. Iran exported 45,349,000 tons of goods, worth 20.596 billion dollars, to the SCO member states last year — registering an increase of 41 percent year on year.
Total imports from the SCO weighed 9,507,000 tons, worth 16.572 billion dollars, marking a 24-percent increase compared to the year before, Latifi said.