Head of UNESCO’s Silk Road and Business Workgroup, said here on Tuesday that taking proper advantage of unique opportunity of presence in Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and expansion of trade ties with regional powers will lead to Iran’s increased economic maneuverability in world.
Mehdi Karimi-Tafreshi told the IRNA that membership in SCO in which such big world powers as China and India are present will have lots of economic and commercial, transportation, transit, security, and even cultural privileges for Iran.
“The world is passing through the western to the post-western world, and Iran has welcomed the acceptance of its request for permanent membership at a block led by Russia and China, which is turning towards east, and can mean the opening of doors towards the large Asian countries and defeating the western sanctions, particularly those of the US,” he added.
The Head of UNESCO’s Silk Road and Business Workgroup said that ever since the beginning years after the establishment of the SCO presented his permanent membership request to that organization, which was in accordance with the legal and diplomatic norms initially dealt with as Iran’s observer status.
“The president is trying to strengthen the regional treaties, and to expand Iran’s trade ties the way it was with Iraq and Afghanistan during the US maximum pressure era, with the other countries, even in the framework of bartered transactions,” added Karimi-Tafreshi.
He said that the SCO member-countries’ nations have half of the world population and 20% of the world’s gross national production (GNP) is in member-countries of that organization.
Karimi-Tafreshi, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the Iranian Industries Confederation, said that the SCO has a bright future, as at least three members of the SCO, namely China, India and Russia are among the top 10 economic world powers, and during the course of the next ten years their status will even improve more.
