Iran pursuing ‘active regional presence’, says Pres. Raeisi ahead of SCO summit
Iran's President Ebrahim Raeisi arrived in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Wednesday for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as well as bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
Leading a high-ranking delegation, President Raeisi was welcomed in an official ceremony by Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov.
Before embarking on the three-day visit, Raeisi said he was going to Uzbekistan at the invitation of his Ukzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
He described the purpose of his visit as reinforcement of the policy of good-neighborliness, convergence, solidarity, and promotion of multilateralism.
"In the first step of developing the neighborhood policy, we were able to strengthen mutual political trust in the region, and in the second step, we are pursuing the effective role of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its active presence in the region," President Raeisi asserted.
Referring to the elevation of Iran as a member of the SCO alliance in the last summit held in Tajikistan, the Iranian president said the country's foreign ministry reviewed the documents, which were followed by the government's approval and are pending legal procedures.
The SCO was founded by China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in 2001, and currently forms the world's biggest regional market with eight official members, and three observer states.
Iran and the organization started a formal process for Tehran’s accession to the bloc in March. Iran's potential membership of the body was later approved by the Iranian administration.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the Iranian government's spokesman, said draft legislation outlining Iran's membership in the organization had been submitted to parliament for approval.
During Raeisi's visit to Uzbekistan Iran is slated to sign a memorandum of commitments on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
The country is expected to complete the accession procedure the next year.
Referring to the prospect of Iran's formal accession to the SCO, President Raeisi said the Islamic Republic was seeking to avail itself of "the infrastructure that exists in Asia and [in] the neighboring countries."
He also informed that he will be holding bilateral meetings with the SCO's heads of state on the sidelines of the organization's summit.
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