Iran has become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), according to the New Delhi declaration of the SCO Heads of State Council published on Tuesday.
"Member states stressed the historical significance of the admission of Iran to the SCO as a full member state," the declaration read.
Iran signed a memorandum of commitment to obtain the status of an SCO member state at the previous SCO summit in Samarkand in September 2022.
Inaugurating the summit on Tuesday, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his SCO counterparts that a growing interest by other countries in joining the SCO is an “evidence” of the Eurasian grouping’s “rising influence”.
Raisi Calls for Elimination of Western Norms from Asia
Addressing the SCO summit, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Asia must be “civilized” again based on the principles of justice and rationality.
“Now that this ancient continent has re-emerged, it must be civilized again by relying on morality, spirituality, justice, rationality and respect for human dignity,” the Iranian leader remarked.
Raisi underlined that the SCO states shared a “common definition of security and development”, which he said was based on historical and civilizational ties among the nations.
“The most important in strengthening unity is the protection of indigenous progressive norms, the rule-making based on those norms and the prevention of the predominance of Western norms,” Raisi told the SCO summit.