Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has backed granting full-fledged membership to Iran to expand the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), saying that it will strengthen the grouping’s influence in the global marketplace.
“The SCO members will have the opportunity to use the facilities of the Chabahar port in Iran,” Jaishankar said while addressing the SCO’s Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Tashkent on Friday.
India has funded the development of Chabahar Port and has backed the Iranian project to boost regional connectivity between South and Central Asian countries. Chabahar is also a part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a connectivity initiative that links India to Russia through Iran and Central Asia.
The Indian foreign minister also called on SCO member states to combat hunger in Afghanistan, where the World Food Program (WFP) has warned of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe.”
“India is helping Afghanistan everywhere. We have already delivered 40,000 tons of wheat, 500,000 doses of vaccines, as well as clothing and emergency supplies to the Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul,” Jaishankar reportedly said.
Afghanistan’s economic recovery took center stage at the SCO CFM meeting, with host Uzbekistan, Russia, and China all urging the US to unfreeze Kabul’s federal assets to the tune of nearly $9 billion, which are currently at American financial institutions.
The Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was also invited to the meeting, although he wasn’t a formal participant. Muttaqi held bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the meeting with the SCO foreign ministers.
Jaishankar further expressed New Delhi’s appreciation for Tashkent's efforts to strengthen “regional cooperation” within the organization, as per Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry.
“India actively supports the initiatives of the Republic of Uzbekistan and is convinced that the SCO Summit in Samarkand will be successful,” Jaishankar said in his address. The SCO Leaders Summit in Samarkand is scheduled to take place on September 15-16.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after the meeting that relevant agreements to grant Iran full-fledged accession to the SCO will be “adopted” at the upcoming leaders’ summit scheduled to take place in Samarkand. Tehran received “candidate status” at the SCO last year, Lavrov said.
Russia's top diplomat added that a number of countries, including in the Middle East and Asia, have also applied for an “observer status” and for being “dialogue partners” in the SCO. Besides Iran, the SCO is also considering full-fledged membership for Belarus.