Putin: No Obstacles for Iran to Join SCO

Russian President Vladimir Putin says there are no obstacles left for Iran to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security and economic cooperation body led by China and Russia.

“We believe that after Iran’s nuclear problem was solved and United Nations sanctions lifted, there have been no obstacles left (for Iran’s membership in the SCO),” Putin told an SCO summit in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Friday.

 

Earlier, reports from the summit said SCO members had failed to initiate the accession process for Iran which expected to make it into the emerging power group after the lifting of sanctions.

“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, had 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 Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are attending the Tashkent summit as is 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.

President Putin says Russia has ‘never interfered’ in Brexit

Meanwhile, Russia has not influenced the Brexit, dismissing as “groundless” claims by the British prime minister that Moscow is interested in the UK leaving the European Union, President Vladimir Putin says.

“Statements made by the UK Prime Minister, Mr. [David] Cameron, before this plebiscite, before this referendum, on Russia’s stance, have no basis and never had. I believe that this is nothing more than a flawed attempt to influence the public opinion in his country. As we see, it didn’t even have the desired result,” Putin said on Friday.

He also underlined, following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan that the Brexit is Britons’ choice and Moscow has never interfered in the issue.

“Prior to the vote in the United Kingdom and after the vote, I have already said that we have never interfered, never discussed this, we acted very properly in my opinion. Of course, we closely followed what was going on, but did not influence this process and did not even attempt to do so.”

Putin also slammed claims that Russia would welcome the UK’s exit, saying such claims “show low level of political culture.”

He also attributed the outcome of the vote to Britain’s discontent with the flow of refugees and security concerns as well as unhappiness with EU bureaucracy.

The Russian president further said the Brexit will have both positive and negative consequences for Russia and the world, noting that the situation will correct itself in the near future.

However, he ruled out that the results of the UK referendum will affect sanctions imposed by the European Union against his country.

“As for the sanctions policy, I don’t think that this move [Brexit] will affect our relations with the EU in this regard. We were not the ones who started these sanctions, we just responded on actions toward our country.”

Russia has been targeted by a series of sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union over allegations that Moscow is arming and supporting pro-Russia forces fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin, however, has strongly rejected the accusations.

“I want to emphasize that if our partners decide to start a constructive dialog on this issue [sanctions], we are ready for this, we want this and we will respond positively on a positive decision,” Putin said.

A majority of Britons voted on Thursday to leave the EU after 43 years of membership, with some 52 percent of British voters opting to leave the EU and roughly 48 percent of people to stay in the union.

The British prime minister announced his resignation after the UK’s vote but said he would remain in office until a new premier could take the helm by the end of October.

R.S