Afghanistan Is Mostly Viewed Through a Security Lens at Regional Meetings, Achakzai Says
Maqbool Khan Achakzai, leader of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami National Party and opposition leader in Pakistan’s National Assembly, has said Afghanistan is mainly examined in regional meetings from a security perspective, an approach he said is accompanied by the absence of full Afghan presence and representation in these discussions.
He said on Sunday at the opening ceremony of a three-day jirga in Quetta that Afghans do not have full presence or representation in talks related to Afghanistan’s future, including meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Achakzai also stressed that the region’s security problems cannot be limited to Afghanistan alone. According to him, wars, foreign intervention and competition among major powers and regional countries have also played a role in creating instability.
He added that proxy forces and groups involved in Afghanistan during the Cold War bear a historic responsibility for the country’s destruction.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is one of the important regional frameworks in the fields of security and political and economic cooperation, and in recent years Afghanistan has repeatedly been raised in meetings related to the bloc, mostly from a security angle.
