China backs Iran’s full membership of SCO: Chinese ambassador to Tehran

Tehran, Oct 31: With the US becoming more and more hostile towards Iran, it is logical to believe that the West Asian republic will be in the lookout for more friends in the international community and the best options for it will definitely be China and Russia. And Beijing and Moscow will also expect a development on similar lines.

Recently, China's Ambassador to Iran Pang Sen, while praising the relations between Beijing and Tehran, said China backs the idea of extending Iran a full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) - a security platform which features China, Russia, India, Pakistan and some of the Central Asian Republics. However, Sen also stressed the importance to improve the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership.

In an interview with Tehran Times and Mehr News Agency, Sen was asked about China's stand on Iran's permanent membership of the SCO, and he said: "In June this year President Rouhani visited China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in Qingdao. The meeting was a great success. We made very good progress to map the direction of the future development of the organization. President Rouhani played there an active role and made positive contribution to the success of the summit. Two presidents also held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit. They discussed intense cooperation between 2 countries."

Sen said the relations between China and Iran are "mutually complementary" and the two countries have a great potential to work together. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani issued a joint statement during the former's visit to Iran in which China made its position clear on the issue of Iran's membership of the SCO.

"China would be happy to see Iran play a greater role in SCO and we support Iran to be a full member of the organization. We wish to emphasize the bilateral economic cooperation. The cooperation between two countries are in line with obligations that each of us undertake. The cooperation is transparent and legitimate," Sen was quoted as saying.