Iran to avoid isolation from the West on July 4 last year India joined the SCO - Shanghai Cooperation Organization– thus becoming the ninth full peer of India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Until last July 4, Iran was invited to the various meetings of the SCO only as an observer.
Now begins the phase in which Iran, in order to benefit from the Organization, must be able to supply goods and products with competitive characteristics to the market of other Countries in order to be competitive and achieve balanced trade with the other members of the SCO. The goal of the SCO is to switch from trading in US dollars to using its own currencies.
Iran has sought to reduce its dependence on the dollar in response to US and EU sanctions imposed on the Iranian banking system in recent years. These sanctions have hindered Iran's ability to participate in free international trade because it is monopolized by dollar exchanges.
International observers think that Iran will not immediately benefit from the advantages of belonging to the SCO because the Organization of 9 is not like NATO or the European Union, where members enjoy some privileges such as mutual defense or economic integration. The SCO functions as a kind of organization and following the best practices which meets in different forums.
On the sidelines of these forums, Iran has the opportunity to engage with many Central Asian states, Russia, China, India and Pakistan. But in terms of benefits, the effects are really quite marginal.
Engagement in the SCO, as it is not as solid an institution as many of its European equivalents, is based on meeting the respective countries' foreign ministers and planning discussions at the big annual summit. This summit consists of a plenary session in which the leaders vote on the various proposals previously discussed.
In addition to the SCO, the Iranian leader Ebrahim Raisi wants to focus on Africa. He did a three day African tour visiting Kenya, Uganda Zmmbabwe. During the meetings, 21 cooperation agreements related to the economic sector were signed.
On the sidelines of the meetings Raisi said: “Relations with Africa are as significant as those the continent has with Asian countries. We discussed a trading mechanism to allow Iran to receive basic goods from Africa in exchange for Iranian petrochemical materials".
Not only SCO and Africa but also the marked interest in being part of the BRICS, the international community which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Iranian activism in the international arena has attracted the attention of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Iran, with the second largest gas reserves in the world, wants to assert this energy superiority to weave new relations and get out of the pincers of US and EU sanctions.
Tehran claims that being part of the BRICS could be an added value for all parties involved, in an anti-Western function.
According to the words of its foreign ministry, Russia can do nothing but support the intention of Iran, Africa and Argentina to join the BRICS. Africa, or at least those countries that do not want to depend on the West, have expressed the desire to replace the currency for international trade by switching from the US dollar to other foreign currencies such as rubles, yen and rupees.
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