On 5-7 March 2023, SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming paid an official visit to Tehran at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi received the SCO Secretary-General who also had a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. Zhang Ming also held talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani and Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Issues Mahdi Safari. He also met with Amir Hossein Mirabadi, Assistant to the Vice President for Science and Technology and Chair of the House of Science and Technological Innovations, as well as Siroos Vatankhah, Chairman of the Presidency Centre for Progress and Development of Iran.
While welcoming Zhang Ming to the capital of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi described the SCO as the world’s largest regional international organisation that plays an important role in maintaining regional and global security and stability.
During the meetings, the Iranian side expressed hope that the procedures for the accession of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the SCO as a member state would be completed as soon as possible. The Iranian officials reaffirmed their commitment to take a substantive part in implementing various intra-SCO projects and to cooperate actively with SCO member states in the interests of the Organisation’s prosperity and facilitating regional stability and sustainable economic growth.
In turn, the Secretary-General praised Iran’s efforts to fulfil the SCO accession procedures and supported Tehran’s commitment to active and productive involvement in the life of the Organisation as regards all items on its agenda. He assured his colleagues that the Secretariat would do everything possible to quickly complete all the legal formalities.
They also exchanged opinions on the regional and global situation and long-term SCO development goals.
During his trip to Iran, Zhang Ming visited the Secretariat of the Economic Cooperation Organisation and held talks with ECO Secretary-General Khusrav Noziri. The officials noted their shared vision of ways to implement cooperation documents between the two organisations.