Daily Times

As the Taliban are in the process of forming an inclusive government that is acceptable to the international community and Pakistan is approaching the regional countries for a coordinated approach on Afghanistan, an important meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is taking place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan next month which amongst other agenda items will also consider the full membership of Afghanistan.

The SCO currently compromises eight member states. These are Pakistan, China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan currently holds an observer status in this Euroasian political, economic and security alliance.

Diplomatic sources told Daily Times that the main task of the forum is to exploit its potential and strengthen international position, and amidst the Covid-19, it is extremely important to build up trade and economic cooperation within this regional bloc.

Given the current situation in Afghanistan, the SCO is also likely to finalize a humanitarian aid package for the conflict ridden country besides discussing the way forward to address impending refugee issue.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chinese President Xi Jinping, heads of States of Central Asian Republics will attend the moot besides the representatives of Turkey and Iran.

According to sources, dates of September 16-17 have been agreed for the Summit and due to the pandemic it may be held virtually.

Ahead of the Summit meeting, a number of meetings between ministers of foreign affairs, defense, justice, finance, healthcare of SCO member states have already taken place. Last month, the National Security Advisers had met in Dushanbe. The first meeting of the ministers of industry and energy of the SCO has also held in Dushanbe.

According to sources fully aware of closed door discussions, countries like Russia, China, Pakistan, Central Asian Republics and Iran all have developed good relations with the Taliban and a joint strategy is being worked out to recognize collectively the new Afghan setup inclusive of all groups. “India, which made massive investments in Afghanistan to use it as proxy against Pakistan, is nowhere in the scene and stands isolated.”

India had been playing a terror sponsoring role in the region by setting up training camps for TTP, BLA and ISIS in Afghanistan. It was also providing funds to these terrorist outfits to perpetrate terrorism inside Pakistan. There are countless terror attacks abetted and planned by RAW, India’s prime intelligence agency.

The diplomatic sources further stated that Russia and China are especially concerned about ISIS and ETIM activities in Afghanistan who are seen as the US terror proxies to destabilize Beijing and Moscow.

It merits mentioning here that the Taliban have assured all its neighboring countries and the world at large that their government would not allow its soil be used against any country.

Observers believe that Afghanistan as a full member of SCO could play a more effective role to curb terrorism and Russia, China and Pakistan could help build Afghan anti-terror organizations particularly its Army and Air force

On the issue of terrorism, the sources said that SCO regional anti forum is necessary to promote the joint purposeful work to combat global threats and security challenges. “The issues of cybercrime and countering the spread of various radical ideologies, especially among young people, require special attention, they added.