Islamabad: Pakistan\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected reports alleging it is obstructing Afghanistan\u2019s full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), stating that Islamabad is not opposed to Afghanistan joining this regional body.<\/p>\n
Tahir Andarabi, the ministry\u2019s spokesperson, said Pakistan has taken “no obstacles or specific actions” to prevent Afghanistan\u2019s membership in the organization. He added that he was unaware of such actions and emphasized that the membership process should consider the composition of SCO members and the level of their diplomatic relations with Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
According to Andarabi, a key prerequisite for joining the SCO is having diplomatic relations with member countries\u2014an issue complicated by Afghanistan\u2019s political situation following the Taliban\u2019s takeover.<\/p>\n
This statement comes after Zamir Kabulov, Russia\u2019s special envoy for Afghanistan, said that despite support from most members, Afghanistan\u2019s full membership process has not begun due to opposition from one country. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Kabulov emphasized that SCO decisions are made by consensus.<\/p>\n
Although Kabulov did not name the opposing country, Izvestia cited Russian government sources reporting that Pakistan has opposed Afghanistan\u2019s membership citing security concerns\u2014a claim now denied by Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, two senior Afghan Foreign Ministry officials told Arab News that despite China, Russia, and other members\u2019 agreement, opposition from one country has stalled the process. One official, alluding to the consensus principle, said even the SCO Secretary-General privately confirmed that only one member opposes Afghanistan\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n
The official stressed that regional countries officially support Afghanistan\u2019s participation in regional frameworks, which should extend beyond merely accepting diplomats and include active Afghan involvement in regional bodies and organizations.<\/p>\n
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 as an initiative by China, Russia, and several Central Asian countries and later expanded with the inclusion of India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus. While not a military alliance like NATO, it remains one of the most important regional forums for political and security coordination in the Eurasian region.<\/p>\n
Amid these discussions, Pakistan and Russia last month held the twelfth meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism in Islamabad. According to a statement from Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Ministry, the two sides discussed security threats and what was described as \u201cterrorism emanating from Afghanistan\u201d\u2014a matter that continues to affect Afghanistan\u2019s regional standing and the SCO members\u2019 approach to dealing with the Taliban administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan denies blocking Afghanistan’s full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, amid regional security concerns and diplomatic complexities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830","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=17830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}