Uzbekistan: No contacts with new authorities of Afghanistan through SCO

MOSCOW (TASS): Afghanistan retains observer status with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), but there are no co-ntacts with the new authorities in Kabul through the organization. This was stated on Thursday by the national coordinator of Uzbekistan for SCO affairs Rakhmatulla Nurimbetov at the presentation of the priorities of Tashkent’s chairmanship in the organization, which is being held at the republic’s embassy in the Russian Federation.
“Afghanistan retains its observer status. Some countries maintain bilateral contacts with the new authorities, I mean the SCO countries, but no one maintains contact on behalf of the SCO, because this requires a consensus decision and recognition of the new authorities from all eight states – members of the SCO, “he said.
He recalled that at the re-cent summit of the organization in Dushanbe, there were no representatives of Afghanistan. At the same time, he admitted that they can participate in the work of the next SCO events, pr-ovided there is a consensus decision of all countries. “If there is a consensus, there will be,” stressed Nurimb-etov.
Nurimbetov also said that a high-level SCO-Afghanistan meeting could take place in 2022, and Uzbekistan, as the country chairing the organization, has already begun preparations. “We have just started the chairmanship, we have a lot of things to do before the end of the year, we must adopt conceptual docume-nts concerning our chairmanship, and there we outline all the major events, in-cluding for holding this hi-gh-level meeting on Afgha-nistan. qualitatively, it will take some time, and it will probably be next year, “he said. Nurimbetov added th-at preparations are already underway. “The President [of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev] voiced the initiative. The chairmanship of Uzbekistan is working on this. <…> Preparations will be underway, and during the chairmanship, the first meeting will be or-ganized, I mean, within the framework of our chairma-nship, in this format,” – said the national coordinator of Uzbekistan for SCO affairs.
He explained that, the Uzbek chairmanship will deal with the organization of upcoming large events in the near future, such as the Council of Heads of Gover-nment, which is scheduled for November. “And about Afghanistan, probably a little later,” he said.