KABUL (Pajhwok): Russian President’s Special Representative for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Affairs Bakhtiyor Khakimov says Moscow sees a need to resume the work of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, adding that the majority of the organisation’s members support the initiative.
Addressing a briefing, Khakimov said Moscow maintained stable contacts with Kabul and supported efforts to further develop and expand those ties, including within the framework of the SCO, Caliber.Az reported.
“We proceed from the assumption that the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, which was established in 2007, should resume its work,” Khakimov said.
“And this understanding generally prevails within the organisation.”
He also said that special consultations on Afghanistan were held in Dushanbe in September last year at the initiative of Tajikistan, one of the outcomes of which was an agreement on “the need to begin studying the possibilities of resuming the work of the contact group.”
The SCO is a regional political, economic and security organisation established in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was later expanded to include India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus as full members.
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