The (Ex) Washington Realist

I came across an interview with a foreign policy advisor to Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev that appeared in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. At the last Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, there was no mechanism in place for expanding the group--and the existing members were leery about extending membership to Iran. That moratorium will remain in place, but apparently Iran, along with India and Pakistan, will upgrade their status from being simply "observers" to becoming "partners in dialogue" with the SCO.