By Varonika for Dispatch News Desk News Agency
Moscow, Russia: Deputy foreign ministers and diplomats of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) including from Pakistan and India urged nation-wide ceasefire in Afghanistan to bring people into war ravaged landlocked Afghanistan.
SCO contact Group met after a pause of seven years in Moscow on Wednesday and discussed situation in Afghanistan. One of the concerns of participants was relocation of terrorists from Syria to Afghanistan under the banner of Daesh—Islamic State.
The meeting was attended by diplomats and deputy foreign minister from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan while Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Hekmat Khalil Karzai represented his country in the meeting.
Hekmat Khalil Karzai held an exclusive meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov before main meeting of SCO Contact Group on Afghanistan.
Further details of meeting are yet to be released. This important meeting was held just a week before the quadrilateral meeting with China, Russia, Pakistan and the United States that will be held in gulf state of Oman on October 16.
Diplomatic circles in Moscow believe that Kabul wishes cooperation with Russia and China to bring peace to war-beaten country but Washington is not happy with involvement of China and Russia into Afghans affairs.
It was learnt that a number of important current issues of the bilateral agenda were discussed at the meeting and SCO member countries were worried about relocation of Daesh —Islamic State in Afghanistan.
Participants discussed relocation of militants from Syria to Afghanistan and believe that over 4,000 terrorists of “Islamic state” (it is forbidden in Russia) had already arrived in Afghanistan.
It is pertinent to mention that the special representative of the Russian President Bakhtiyor Khakimov stated in a statement that the SCO group would not duplicate any of the existing negotiating platforms for Afghanistan. The Istanbul process, the Kabul forum and multilateral groups of states are currently trying to promote national reconciliation. There are many formats, but the quantity does not go into quality.
Diplomatic circles in Moscow are of the view that the advantage of the Moscow forum (SCO Contact Group on Afghanistan) is that neighboring countries are joining it. They are most interested in the establishment of peace in the Islamic Republic because their security is directly linked with Afghanistan.
Senior researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies Vladimir Sotnikov was of the view that Afghanistan is (was) seeking full membership in the SCO despite the fact that Afghanistan is the closest US ally in South-West Asia.
Vladimir Sotnikov believes that Kabul wants military-technical cooperation with Russia, China and Kazakhstan but still shy to demand openly because of its dependency over United States.
It is pertinent to mention that Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) resumed its Afghanistan Contact Group meeting after a pause of seven years as last meeting was took place in Astana.
