By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
 
Ali Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, says Tehran and Moscow have agreed on efforts for the promotion of Iran’s status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
After a meeting with a meeting in Moscow as a special envoy for President Hassan Rouhani, the top Iranian official gave Ruouhani’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting, which lasted more than an hour, focused on bilateral political and economic ties as well as Tehran’s nuclear talks with the Sextet of world powers.
The SCO groups China and Russia with the four Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran has observer status.  The country, which received observer status at the SCO in 2005, eyes the body’s upcoming meeting in the Republic of Bashkortostan next summer, where new membership will be discussed.
The Iran-SCO ties have been on the up since President Rouhani's first international trip to the 2013 SCO Summit in Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and a 2014 one in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Iran’s 2008 application for full membership has so far been blocked due to sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.
Iran says it is ready to join the SCO as a permanent member, which has always been welcomed by the member states. Its full membership is set to give a new lease of life to the Organization and reinforce the Tehran-Beijing and Tehran-Moscow ties.
The Iran-Asia trade is symbolized by numerous energy sales and contracts, which are now conducted in euros, yen and national currencies, and none in the US dollar.
This clearly translates into the fact that it is Washington, and not Tehran, which is getting boxed into a corner in the current standoff over Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
To make a proof, it suffices to state that three largest customers of Iranian oil are now China, India and Japan, while the former has surpassed Germany as Iran’s biggest trading partner. Also the main market for Iran’s gasoline purchases has now switched to Singapore and the main investors in Iran’s energy sector are all Asian.
According to many Western pundits, Iran’s rediscovery of Asia and its turn away from Europe is the most important and perhaps least expected consequence of the network of illegal sanctions.
Indeed, Iran's relations with the regional Organization, which is dominated by Russia and China, represent the most extensive diplomatic ties Tehran has ever shared since 1979.
What’s more, China and Russia consider cooperation with Iran and Syria in their national interests. Their financial gains from cooperation with Tehran and Damascus stand to be very considerable, and this may be just a beginning of future cooperation.
Just as importantly, there is a significant angle of economic competition over Iranian resources and access to its lucrative market. Russia continues to believe that Western ‘concerns’ over ‘nuclear proliferation’ merely reflect their hidden commercial agenda to drive Russia out of Iran’s competitive market.
For instance, in an interview with Western journalists, President Putin once said: "According to our information, many European and American firms cooperate with Iran either directly or through intermediary organizations."
Conceivably, that explains why the Asian giants have moved towards upgrading their relations with Tehran through the SCO at all levels, for the most part, through joint ventures in energy, transportation and trade.