Sergey Lavrov has warned that the deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe can adversely affect the Central Asia.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Iran's SCO Membership on the Cards - Lavrov
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will close ranks to oppose Washington’s growing influence in the Central Asia, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Kyrgyzstan earlier this week. The SCO is set to boost ties with Iran as controversy with the United States is growing.
Sergey Lavrov warned that the deployment of the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe can adversely affect the Central Asia. ”We see that consequences of the unilateral action will affect Central Asia and we should take into account not only the interests of the member states, but also the interests of the observers in this organization,” Mr. Lavrov said at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek. The meeting approved the agenda for the SCO summit in August. SCO leaders are to sign a treaty to regulate relations between the members and a declaration to declare the common view on global developments, Sergey Lavrov added.
The Russian foreign policy chief also called to step up efforts to admit Iran as a member state.
Moscow lobbied Iran’s membership in the SCO last year but Beijing would oppose the move assuming it would sour relations with the West. The Kremlin seems to have decided to revive the idea as its relations with Washington is getting increasingly strained.
On another note, gas rich Turkmenistan may join the organization at the upcoming summit. The country’s new leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is invited as an honorary guest. Uzbek President Islam Karimov had the same status at the 2005 summit which voted to admit his country to the organization.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit the summit and may also join other leaders at a military range in Russia to see command post exercises.
The Shanghai cooperation organization includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as members with India, Pakistan and Mongolia as observers.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 11, 2007
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