The Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has announced that member countries are exploring ways to resume the activities of the \u201cAfghanistan Contact Group,\u201d a mechanism that has been inactive for the past four years. He emphasized that Afghanistan remains a central focus for the regional organization\u2019s members.<\/p>\n
Ahmad Saeed Moradzadeh, speaking to a Russian media outlet on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said that the issue of Afghanistan will likely be reflected in the final declaration of the SCO summit in Bishkek. According to him, members are striving to reach an agreement on reviving this mechanism, which is part of the organization\u2019s security agenda.<\/p>\n
Moradzadeh pointed to Afghanistan\u2019s geopolitical position, noting that the country lies at the geographical center of the SCO region and is considered a \u201cnatural neighbor\u201d to the member states. Afghanistan currently holds observer status within the organization.<\/p>\n
He also revealed that after a four-year hiatus, the first official consultations among member states regarding Afghanistan were held. This meeting, initiated by Tajikistan, took place in the city of Dushanbe, where the SCO countries\u2019 special representatives on Afghanistan shared their perspectives on the ongoing developments in the country.<\/p>\n
While the SCO speaks of strengthening cooperation mechanisms, Afghanistan\u2019s political and security situation under Taliban rule remains a major regional concern\u2014an issue that, according to some analysts, continues to cast a shadow over the way regional bodies engage with Kabul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is considering reviving its Afghanistan Contact Group after four years, focusing on regional security and cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international","category-secondary-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}