Re: [Salon] Iran to join SCO by 2023

[Jeffrey Steinberg <steinberg_jj@hotmail.com>]

BRICS now has total population of over 3 billion and represents more than 26 percent of global GDP.  Counting the Western economic higher percentage of service over production and raw material, actual goods production by BRICS countries is even greater.  At the recent meeting they took up creating a BRICS basket of currency to facilitate trade in local currency and reduced dependence on the USD.  Other countries considering BRICS membership, which would carry further implications for global trade and economic output include Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Turkey, UAE.

I think the freezing of $300 billion in Russian assets abroad was a shock to the system.  Previously such actions were directed against Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan.  The action against Russia made clear that over exposure to USD assets carries this big liability.  

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From: Salon <salon-bounces@listserve.com> on behalf of Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:24 AM
To: [Salon] <salon@committeefortherepublic.org>
Subject: [Salon] Iran to join SCO by 2023

 

Iran to join SCO by 2023

• Iran will finalize its accession to full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) by April 2023, said the Iranian Embassy in China. The Eurasia organization was founded in 2001 with six members —China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the SCO in 2017. In September last year, the Eurasia organization approved Iran’s application to become a full member 15 years after the country became an observer.

• Iran also applied to join BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, earlier this year. The group has been seeking to expand in their recent meetings.

• The inclusion of Iran in the SCO and BRICS, both of which have China, Russia, and India as their members, is symbolic. For one thing, it demonstrates the progress towards the more inclusive global order that Beijing advocates. More importantly, it marks the forming of ever-closer ties among these countries, and this could have significant implications for geopolitics.