All eyes are on this year's Shanghai Corporation organization Samarkand summit scheduled on September 15 and 16th. As the 8th member grouping is all set to expand, the heads of member states are going to consider Iran's membership bid while granting it member status. It is one of the major summits happening after the pandemic. With countries such as Russia, China, India and Pakistan set to come together, it will be keenly watched across the world.

The Uzbek diplomats say that Iran's upcoming entry into the organization as a full member would open the gates for West Asian countries to the SCO. His father added that a number of Arab countries are showing great interest in joining the SCO as partners. Akatov said that the members will make a historic decision to improve and also expand the SCO during September 15 and 16th summit, making the organization even stronger from the inside and attractive from the outside. The SCO grouping right now includes close to half of the world's nuclear powers. Global leaders like India, China and Russia are part of it, and Russia is also a major oil producer. Iran's entry would expand the trade size of member states. The membership would also change the geopolitics of the region, enabling Iran to gain a better position amidst the derailing nuclear deal. It would act as a shield against Western sanctions, which in turn would boost the economy of Iran.

Iran's membership has been the focus even before the summit begins. This is the next major expansion of the grouping after the 2017 expansion, which saw India and Pakistan becoming members of the grouping. Secondly, Iran's membership is important in terms of the creation of a non-Western front. Now, Iran is staunchly non-west and is seen as anti-US as well. So for Iran, it's a win-win taking part in a grouping which is dominated by China and Russia. Another thing which is being seen is one of the key outcomes is trading in local currency, basically not in dollars. So Iran is one of the champions in a sense when it comes to the usage of their currency, the Rial. And now, of course, Russia, facing the sanctions, is also keen on the use of local currency for trading. So that is why Iran's membership adds to the grouping power. SCO is already a large grouping in terms of its geographical size, in terms of its economic weight, and in terms of population as well. So as Iran becomes a member, it also opens the gateway for other West Asian countries. Several Arab countries would also be keen to become part of the SCO grouping. 

The two-day Samarkand meeting is the largest international political forum in Eurasia in recent years and the heads of the member states are meeting together in person for the first time in the last three years. The meeting would allow discussion over bilateral, regional and global issues accumulated during the pandemic. Uzbekistan will also host Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt as dialogue partners and consider dialogue partnership applications from Bahrain, the UAE, Syria and Iraq who are also aspiring for SCO partnership. 

Well, Uzbekistan's cultural capital, Samarkand is going to host the SCO summit and this year's summit is the first in-person summit happening after a period of two years. The last was in Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan. So diplomats, of course, are very optimistic that 15 world leaders are meeting. We know that the eight member countries are participating, but there are invited guests and observer members who are also travelling to summer conduct to of course take part in the summit. Now what is important to note is that while the global geopolitics is changing very fast, this major grouping of leaders who are non-Western, the gathering is important in terms of making sure that the new world order is something which is non-Western and secondly, sending a message that when it comes to global geopolitics.

This meeting of the SCO heads of government is deemed quite significant. The Pakistani Prime Minister Shabajiri is all set to attend the meeting. He's due to arrive on the morning of 15th September. There are no reports of a structured meeting, but officials and authorities from the Pakistani side have not ruled out the possibility of a handshake or even if it transpires into a polar side with his Indian counterpart. What we do know is that the summit is due to hold at least eight bilateral meetings, including the most critical one, between the Chinese President, Xi Jinping with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

This grouping consists of about 40% of the world's population, and 30% of the world's GDP, and largely, it is seen as a China-Russia mechanism to create an alternate world order. And both India and Pakistan will strive to maintain an objective balance.   The geographical location of India and Pakistan makes them very important members of this grouping.

What is on the agenda for the SCO summit?

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