BEIJING – Iran, China and Russia may seek ways to salvage the nuclear dealditched by Donald Trump when their leaders meet this weekend at a summit onthe Chinese coast.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security bloc ledby China and Russia, is set to hold its 18th annual gathering in the cityof Qingdao on Saturday and Sunday.
Iran s President Hassan Rouhani is attending this year — just the secondtime an Iranian leader has participated.
It comes after US President Trump controversially pulled Washington out ofa 2015 international pact with Iran that placed limits on its nuclearprogramme in return for easing economic sanctions.
China is Iran s top trade partner and one of the biggest buyers of its oil,but those who oppose the US abandonment of the deal risk huge fines forbusting the tough American measures.
Rouhani is taking part because “Iran is currently evaluating thesignatories of the nuclear deal to see to what extent they ll be able toeffectively maintain it even after the US s withdrawal”, said Gao Shangtao,an expert on Middle East relations at Beijing Foreign Affairs College.
“To put it bluntly, if Tehran feels assured that China and Russia canwithstand the pressure of US sanctions and continue to do business withIran, then Tehran will seek to retain the deal — otherwise, it smeaningless,” he said.
Chinese businesses are expected to step up activities in Iran to fill thevoid left by the exit of US companies and the possible withdrawal ofEuropean rivals who fear punitive US measures.
Hua Liming, a former Chinese ambassador to Iran, told the Global Timesnewspaper on Tuesday: “Unlike the US, China will not break its promise andwill ensure that China-Iran relations won t be affected.”
Iran announced on Tuesday that it plans to boost uranium enrichmentcapacity with new centrifuges within the 2015 deal s limits, promptingBeijing to urge all parties to “continue to sustain and implement” theagreement.
The SCO bloc includes four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics and two newmembers, Pakistan and India — whose President Mamnoon Hussain and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, respectively, will be present this weekend.
Iran is currently an observer member of the SCO, though it has long soughtfull membership.
“Iran needs more diplomatic support from the East — not only China, butalso Central Asia — in order to strengthen its position and better contendwith the US,” said Xu Tiebing, international relations professor at theCommunication University of China.
But most Chinese analysts “are not too eager to see Iran accepted as aformal member state” due to its perceived political instability, he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Rouhani on the sidelines of thesummit, but the nuclear deal is not on the formal SCO agenda.
Major SCO topics will include improving trade ties — in part by pushingforward China s Belt and Road global infrastructure project — andstrengthening cooperation on drug trafficking, cybersecurity andcounter-terrorism.
Despite mistrust between China and Russia, “outside circumstances –specifically US foreign policy — have pushed them closer to each other”,said Tugrul Keskin, director of the Center for Global Governance atShanghai University.
Xu agreed, noting US policy under Trump has been the driver of the SCO sgrowing profile, becoming “a kind of glue” keeping together SCO membercountries who have disparate and often conflicting agendas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN thatthough the SCO began as a “low-profile organisation” that sought merely to”solve border issues” between China, Russia and former Soviet countries, itis now evolving into a larger global force.
“Our objective was quite small, but as we worked together on these smallissues, we found similarities between us,” he said.
“We realised that together we could achieve something bigger, grander.” -APP/AFP