India's key ally Russia has been favouring India's permanent SCO membership, saying the largest democracy joining the group will add weight to the organisation. Another major oil-producer Iran is also aspiring to become member of the SCO.
SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as observers at the 2005 Astana Summit.
Last week, during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping had supported India's bid for SCO membership.
Officials said an SCO membership will help India address its growing energy needs. India has oil deals with Russia, Kazakhstan and was working on a gas deal with Turkmenistan.
They said the SCO platform will also help speedy implementation of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project
The nearly 1800-km-long TAPI pipeline would originate from Turkmenistan and pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan before entering India.
It will have a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (mmscmd) for a 30-year period and scheduled to be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would get 38 mmscmd each, while the remaining 14 mmscmd will be supplied to Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan had recently offered ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) a stake in medium-sized Abai oil block in Caspian Sea.
The Indian government is of the view that SCO membership will offer India more opportunities to work closely with China in certain areas including in Afghanistan.
India also feels as SCO member, it will be able to play a major role in addressing the threat of terrorism in the region.
India is also keen to deepen its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS) which specifically deals issues relating to security and defence.
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