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“Perfectly pleased to announce that the permanent membership document of the Islamic Republic of Iran was approved by the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Dushanbe in the presence of our esteemed President,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted Friday.

“This strategic membership has an important impact on the process of comprehensive cooperation between Iran in line with the policy of neighborhood with and pivot to Asia,” he added.

The decision came as the 21st summit of the organization (SCO) opened in Dushanbe earlier in the day, with Chinese President Xi Jinping telling it that Iran will be accepted as a full member.

Leaders from eight member states and four observer states attended the annual summit in Tajikistan’s capital on Friday, with the Chinese leader addressing it virtually along with Russian, Indian and Mongolian presidents.

Xi criticized sanctions imposed on world economic exchanges, urging SCO members to stay united against attacks by other countries.

Meanwhile addressing the summit, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday described Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a possible driving force for establishing multilateralism among the global states.

Raisi said that Iran’s foreign policy has always been based on active participation in international bodies, as well as multilateralism.

Iran’s policy has been opposed to unilateralism, he further noted.

Bolstering bilateral cooperation, particularly in the economic field, is helpful in promoting the strategic role of SCO in the global economy, he underlined.

President Raisi along with top officials from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are present in the event, while presidents of Russia, China, India, and Mongolia take part in the summit via video conferencing.

“I hope that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will continue its proud path, which has made it a distinguished regional and international organization in a short time,” he stated.

Let me express “my satisfaction with attending this important and influential” meeting, which is one of the few opportunities for dialogue to ensure real peace and cooperation at the regional level, and I sincerely thank all the esteemed members for the permanent membership of Islamic Iran, he added.

Raisi pointed out that “cultural development is the first agenda of cooperation between civilized countries”.

“Most of the world’s cultural and spiritual treasury is located in Asia. Asia is the cradle of human civilization and its beating heart has been in China, India, Tajikistan, and Iran,” he underscored.

“Asian culture and civilization have always been associated with harmony, patience, politeness, mutual respect and benevolence, and in a nutshell, wisdom, and justice. The greatest Abrahamic religions have arisen in Asia,” he added.

“Spirituality is the eternal need of humanity and what today’s man has lost,” he said, noting that “the crisis of spirituality is the foundation of all crises in the world. Monopolies, violence, and human rights abuses are manifestations of the consequences of staying away from spirituality; Iran can play an important role in the development of cultural regionalism.”

When “I took over the presidency of the Islamic Republic, I introduced my foreign policy orientation” as focusing on “economic multilateralism” and strengthening “neighborhood policy” in its broadest sense, and strengthening its presence in regional organizations, he pointed out.

“The combination of Eurasia and One Road-One Belt initiatives can be an objective realization of this approach,” he said, adding that “the vast potential of the Islamic Republic of Iran in terms of geopolitics, population, energy, transportation, human resources, and most importantly spirituality, culture, and civilization can cause a significant stimulus to this outlook.”

This region has had a great cohesion throughout history, and the restoration of this cohesion is one of the features of the Shanghai Pact as emphasized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, he added.

He termed Asia as a land rich in civilizations and values, noting that Asia’s role on the international stage requires maintaining harmony between its nations and civilizations.

He went on to say that “Iran strengthens the harmony among Asian nations and civilizations”.

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In the webinar which was held on Tuesday, the participants explored ways for broadening economic cooperation between Iran and China and especially with Shanghai. During the webinar, Head of TCCIMA Ms. Masoud Khansari raised some suggestions for expansion of economic and commercial ties between Iran and China and Head of CCPIT Mr. Zhou Minhao also announced the launch of the platform for Shanghai virtual exhibition with cooperation of the e-trade website of Alibaba Company and support of Shanghai Municipality, and stipulated that the platform can be innovative ways for expansion of cooperation between Iranian economic enterprises with Shanghai.

Addressing the webinar, Khansari pointed to the unilateral and unfair sanctions of the U.S. against Iran and some other countries like China, and called for taking a new and effective strategy for regulating relations between the aligned countries. He also pointed to the 25-year cooperation agreement between Iran and China and noted that this opportunity should be used as a foundation for the infrastructural cooperation between the two states for long cooperation in the future. Khansari also underscored the development of ties between Iran and China under the project of One Belt and One Road, adding that the private sector and especially the TCCIMA have plans on its agenda to concentrate on interactions with China’s provinces like Shanghai.

Khansari also said the chamber is keen for the launch of a permanent connection channel between TCCIMA and CCPIT for expansion of ties and emphasized the exchange of the website links of these two private sector bodies of the two states for an easy and safe access of economic activists and traders of the both countries.

He also called for activating the joint arbitration committee between the two countries which has been agreed by the both sides and called it a necessity. He further said that the draft for MoU on cooperation between TCCIMA and CCPIT has been prepared and reminded that this cooperation document will be a new opportunity for enhancing improvement of the level of cooperation between the two countries.

Then Zhou Minhao, for his part, said that Iran and China will celebrate their 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties this year and expansion of the One Belt and One Road project by China is a proof for China’s strategies of open doors and reciprocal benefits, reiterating that this has provided a valuable opportunity for cooperation enterprises worldwide and especially Iran.

Zhou also pointed to China’s policy during the COVID-19 pandemic era, saying that holding international exhibition on import and export in Shanghai is one of the policies of the country, adding that the launch of platform for Shanghai virtual exhibition is another step for easing the ties of the trade communities from different countries like Iran with Shanghai Economic Zone. Then he pointed to some facilities and services that the CCPIT can provide to the economic enterprises and called for growing cooperation between the CCPIT and TCCIMA.

Then Iran’s counselor in Shanghai Mr. Ramezan Parvaz, for his part, revealed the decline in trade volume between Iran and Shanghai and said in 2019, the trade volume between Iran and Shanghai was $2.321b as Iran’s exports accounted for $1.416b of the total amount and Shanghai’s share was $905m. He added the figure faced 13 percent decline in 2020 as the bilateral trade of Iran and Shanghai slumped to below $2b.

He noted that one of the problems ahead of economic ties of the two countries is the transfer of money and called for finding a solution for this woe.

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The governments of the world’s largest economies have levied billions of dollars of tariffs on each other’s imports, disrupted global supply chains and shaken financial markets in their dispute over how China does business with the rest of the world.

China had agreed to make unspecified purchases of US farm goods, according to the White House, and the timing of the next round of talks came after Chinese officials briefed private importers last Friday on a plan to boost soybean purchases.

“Some Chinese firms are willing to continue to buy some US agricultural goods, and they have asked for prices from their US suppliers and will sign commercial contracts soon,” ministry spokesman Gao Feng told a news conference.

The purchases will be decided by companies themselves according to market-based rules, said Gao, adding that the restarting of trade talks had no direct bearing on the US agriculture buys.

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