“It is clear that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) cannot solve Iran’s economic problems (which are also partly fueling the nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini), but membership in the organization may also not offer much besides some prestige. Despite the SCO’s erroneous depiction as an encroaching China-led “anti-NATO alliance”, the reality is that within the group there are differing views and interests, that sometimes even boil over into open hostilities. Consequently, SCO membership may not even strengthen Iran’s international position on the most relevant issues the country faces, the JCPOA and relations with the Gulf states, instead only heightening the tensions between Tehran and the West.”
Leonardo Bruni (ChinaMed Project, T.wai & Peking University) in the article “The SCO Reaches the Mediterranean” in his monthly column on Sino-Mediterranean relations for The China Global South Project.
Leonardo Bruni is Project Officer at T.wai.
“Although both the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) advocated for “national roads to socialism” and shared concerns about Moscow’s... Read More
