The expert meeting of the foreign ministers of the member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) began on Monday without the presence of Taliban members in Mashhad.
The main meeting of ECO foreign ministers will be held tomorrow (Tuesday). It is not yet clear whether the Taliban has been invited to the meeting or not.
Earlier, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official had said that Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister, will not attend the 28th meeting of foreign ministers of the member states of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO). Ahmad Masoumifar clarified that not inviting the Taliban is the decision of the ECO secretariat. The Taliban has not commented on the group's presence at the summit.
Last year, no representative from Afghanistan was invited to participate in the ECO meeting.
According to Iranian media reports, in addition to expert delegations and ambassadors of ECO member countries in Tehran, the foreign ministers of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and the ECO secretary general have arrived in Mashhad.
According to IRNA, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Foreign Ministry's mission in Khorasan Razavi province said, "A wide range of different issues in the region will be put on the agenda of the summit by senior experts and officials at today's ECO expert meeting."
On the sidelines of the first day of the ECO summit in Mashhad, Ahmad Masoumifar said that these issues revolve around transit, environment, inter-agency trade, customs, and banking transactions.
"In addition to officials from member countries, the summit will be attended by the head of the ECO Trade and Development Bank, the heads of ECO affiliated institutions and other unions in the region, including the eight Islamic developing countries, and the Asian Dialogue Forum," he told reporters.
The ECO was created on the initiative of Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, and then Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan joined it.
ECO is a regional organisation established by Iran, Pakistan and Türkiye in 1964 with the aim of promoting economic and cultural cooperation among member states. Then, since 1992, with the admission of seven new countries, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, the number of its members has increased to 10 countries.
Since joining the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), Afghanistan has always been an active member of this regional organisation. However, the Taliban's return to power in 2021 and the group's lack of recognition have caused Afghanistan's representative to be absent from many important international meetings. Afghanistan was also the biggest absentee from last year's ECO meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
