ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday signed the Memorandum of Obligations (MoO) with the objective of obtaining the full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at its Heads of State Summit in Tashkent.

The MoO was jointly signed by the foreign ministers of the six SCO member states, Secretary General SCO and Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

'No obstacles for Iran to join SCO'

There are no obstacles left for Iran to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

“We believe that after Iran's nuclear problem was solved and United Nations sanctions lifted, there have been no obstacles left (for Iran's membership in the SCO),” Putin said in a speech at an SCO summit in the Uzbek capital Tashkent.

Pakistan's membership will have a positive impact on several major issues pertaining to military and technical cooperation with Russia and on communication projects with China.

Pakistan was invited to become full member of the SCO at the Ufa summit in July last year and all relevant procedures are being completed for full membership.

The SCO is a security bloc led by China and Russia. The bloc was originally formed to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighbouring Afghanistan.

The SCO groups China, Russia, Pakistan, India and the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while Iran, Afghanistan and Mongolia are observers.