According to reports from the summit being held in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, members failed to agree on Iran's full membership despite support from Russia.
“We failed to reach an agreement with our colleagues this time, but the work continues,” special Russian envoy to the SCO Bakhtiyor Khakimov said.
He said there were no objections to the idea of Iran’s full membership “in principle,” but there were “technical nuances” related to the timing which he did not elaborate.
“The Russian position is clear in its support of initiating the SCO admission process [for Iran] without delays, if possible,” Khakimov said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Tashkent early Friday to attend the summit. The country, which has an observer status on the SCO, sent President Hassan Rouhani to the forum held in the Russian city of Ufa last year.
Iran has long sought membership in the SCO but the group kept the country waiting until it reached an agreement with the US, Europe and other key international players on its nuclear program.
With the addition of Iran, the group would control around a fifth of the world's oil and represent nearly a half of the global population.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will be attending the Tashkent summit as will Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The organization is expected to get India and Pakistan on its roster even as the two atomic archrivals would have to wait until the 2017 summit for a formal seat among its members.
There is optimism that the entry of India and Pakistan into the grouping will have a sobering effect on the two countries' strained relations.
The SCO was founded in 2001 and has six full members, namely Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, India, Mongolia, Belarus, India, and Pakistan are also observer members.
At the 15th anniversary of its establishment, the SCO is expected to release a declaration upon finalization in Tashkent.
The SCO has sought unity with the BRICS group of world countries - Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Russia. The two bodies have agreed to coordinate efforts to keep their economies stable, launched a development bank and agreed on a currency pool.
/SR
