SCO Should Engage With Afghanistan To Expand Influence, Says Kazakhstan
Yerzhan Kistafin, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Pakistan, said that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should engage with Afghanistan to solve problems.
Kistafin said that the SCO's engagement with countries like Afghanistan is important for expanding the organisation’s influence and resolving geopolitical issues.
TASS news agency reported on Friday that Kistafin spoke about the activities of the SCO during a meeting at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.
The Kazakh Ambassador to Pakistan said that his country supports the participation of SCO observer countries in its activities.
The SCO summit is scheduled to be held on July 3-4 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Afghanistan has been an observer member of the SCO since 2012, but after the Taliban came to power, no one has been allowed to enter SCO meetings to represent Afghanistan.
Last week, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that Tajikistan opposes the Taliban's presence in the SCO.
Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are members of the SCO. Although some of these countries have economic and diplomatic relations with the Taliban, none of them recognise the Taliban government.
Earlier, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the President of Kazakhstan, announced that he had removed the Taliban from the list of terrorist groups of the country.
