{"id":240,"date":"2026-06-02T01:24:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/240\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T01:24:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:24:44","slug":"why-the-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-isnt-nato-for-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/240\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation isn\u2019t Nato for Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Central Asia is tilting more decisively towards China as geopolitical uncertainty deepens, with Beijing\u2019s expanding influence recasting the former Soviet states\u2019 strategic orientation. In the final instalment of a three-part series<\/a>, Cao Jiaxuan examines how Central Asian members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation have shaped the bloc\u2019s response to the US-Iran conflict. Read the first part here<\/a> and the second part here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While some observers have suggested the bloc could take a decisive coordinated stance, analysts said such expectations were unlikely to be met, not because the bloc was ineffective but because restraint was built into its design.<\/p>\n

Iran became a full member of the SCO in July 2023. It has viewed the bloc, led by China and Russia, as an important platform to break free from US-led diplomatic isolation amid long-standing Western economic sanctions.<\/p>\n

But Iran\u2019s high tensions with the United States and Israel have cast uncertainty over the SCO\u2019s regional agenda, with the conflict in the Middle East remaining unresolved even as a Pakistan-mediated fragile ceasefire enters its eighth week.<\/p>\n

Trump says Xi offered help on Iran as China seeks to keep Hormuz open<\/p>\n

According to an Axios report on Thursday, Washington and Tehran have reached a tentative agreement on a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and facilitate formal negotiations, though US President Donald Trump has yet to give his final approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Asia is tilting more decisively towards China as geopolitical uncertainty deepens, with Beijing\u2019s expanding influence recasting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[195,193,190,194,191,57,156,157,192,7,20,189,187,49,188],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ayatollah-ali-khamenei","tag-beijing","tag-bishkek","tag-central-asia","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-kyrgyzstan","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-shanghai-cooperation-organisation","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-united-states","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}