Shanghai Cooperation Organization

China has formed a club of authoritarian-led countries and Iran wants to join.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (whew! those are hard to spell) make up the group so far Pakistan and Mongolia as well as India have observer status. Iran is observing this time around as well.

The alliance has celebrated 5 years. Of the members and observers, 4 are nuclear powers and make up 40% of the world's population and about 1/4 of the world's oil reserves.

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