The 10th meeting of ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) opened on Wednesday in Islamabad without the participation of a representative from the Taliban. The two-day meeting is focused on strengthening regional cooperation on disaster risk reduction.
Ministers and senior officials from ECO member states, along with representatives of regional and international partner organisations, are attending the gathering.
The Taliban have not commented publicly on their absence. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, which is hosting the meeting, has also not explained why no Taliban representative is present.
Images released from the meeting show Afghanistan’s seat left empty among the participants, with the country’s national flag placed in front of it. At the same time, some media outlets and social media users close to the Taliban reported on X that the group did not attend the Islamabad meeting.
The Economic Cooperation Organization is a regional body aimed at promoting economic, trade, cultural and technical cooperation among its member states.
Ahead of the meeting, organisers had said delegations from all ECO members including Pakistan, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan were expected to take part.
At a previous ECO meeting held in Azerbaijan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, attended and called on member states to take positive and practical steps towards recognising the Taliban, following Russia’s decision to do so.
