Go to mediabankSAMARKAND (Uzbekistan), Sep 14Afghanistan will not be represented at the SCO summit in Samarkand, the organization temporarily does not maintain official relations with this country, SCO national coordinator from Uzbekistan Rakhmatulla Nurimbetov told reporters on Wednesday. The SCO summit will be held in Samarkand on September 15-16. Samarkand. The SCO temporarily does not maintain contact with this country, «Nurimbetov said during a briefing. He explained that the SCO, as an international organization, maintained official relations with the former government of Afghanistan, which ceased to function in August 2021. Afghanistan is an observer country in the SCO. In early August last year, the Taliban stepped up their offensive against the Afghan government forces, entered Kabul on August 15, and the next day declared that the war was over. The last two weeks of August, from the Kabul airport, which was under the protection of the US military, there was a mass evacuation of citizens of Western countries and Afghans who collaborated with them. On the night of August 31, the US military left the Kabul airport, ending nearly 20 years of US military presence in Afghanistan. In early September, the composition of the interim government of Afghanistan was announced, which was headed by Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who served as head of the Foreign Ministry during the first rule of the Taliban * and has been under UN sanctions since 2001. The SCO is an international organization founded in 2001. India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan participate in it. Observer countries — Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, partner countries — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka. At the SCO summit in Dushanbe in September 2021, the procedure for admitting Iran to the organization and granting the status of a dialogue partner to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia was launched. This year, Belarus officially applied to join the SCO as a full member.* The Taliban are under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.
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