SCO Should Reinforce East's Culture Toward Western One: Iran Culture Min.

Beijing, June 5, IRNA - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should defend eastern culture toward the invasion of western culture, Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister, Sayed Mohammad Hosseini, said here on Monday. He made the remarks in an interview with IRNA. “SCO should defend the eastern culture against the West’s cultural invasion to the member states and observer-states by reinforcing joint cultural commonalities; however Iran is an observer-state in the SCO but Tehran has suggested the formation of an inter-cultural institute among members to extend cultural relations among them; Iran is ready to host the first meeting of this cultural section.” Culture Minister added that Tehran is to review its bilateral relations with the SCO member-states in the Beijing meeting. “Iran aims to sign an agreement with China on establishment of an Iranian cultural center in Beijing as well as the establishment of a Chinese cultural center in Tehran.” “The SCO was at the beginning, a security regional organization but its economic, cultural and political aspects have grown recently; Iran aims to use the ground as an opportunity to extend the teaching of Farsi language among members,” Hosseini noted. Culture Minister arrived in Beijing on Monday to attend the 9th Summit of the SCO Culture Ministers, there. Beijing is hosting the 12th SCO Summit from June 6-7, which is expected to map out the future of this influential organization that brings together Russia and China, the two permanent members of the UN Security Council, and the energy-rich Central Asian states, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia currently enjoy the status of observers in the SCO. India, China and Russia are in favor of resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and diplomacy. The SCO is an inter-governmental international organization established in June 2001 by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Observer states include India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan, while dialogue partners include Belarus and Sri Lanka. The Eastern cooperation can pave way for opening numerous corridors of progress for members. The alliance can open ways for exporting energy from energy-rich countries such as Russia- Turkmenistan and Iran, to energy-scarce states such as Pakistan and India. Energy-deficient countries can greatly benefit from this increased regional cooperation. One such example is the trans-Afghan pipeline or TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India), which surely can help in overcoming some part of the energy shortfall in Pakistan and India./end