ISLAMABAD: A joint meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was held in Dushanbe on Thursday, with the foreign ministers of Russia, China and Pakistan and a deputy minister from Iran in attendance, the Pakistani foreign office said.
The leaders are in Tajikistan with their respective heads of government to attend the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) summit.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of selected post-Soviet states.
“During the meeting, special discussions were held on the emerging situation in Afghanistan and peace and stability in the region,” the foreign office said about Thursday’s joint meeting of the SCO and CSTO. “The participants reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace, security and stability in Afghanistan and the region as a whole.”
World powers have told the Taliban the key to peace and development is an inclusive government acceptable to all people of Afghanistan, including women and minorities. But an all-male interim cabinet announced earlier this month saw key positions going to core, veteran players of the Taliban movement.
The Persian-speaking Tajiks of Afghanistan’s western and northern regions have long been opposed to the southern and eastern Pashtuns who make up the core of the Taliban.
“The ministers stressed the need for a government of national reconciliation and inclusiveness in Afghanistan that takes into account the interests of all ethnic and political forces in the country,” the statement said. “The meeting highlighted the current situation in Afghanistan and the threats it poses, in particular the need for joint efforts to address the spread of terrorism and drug trafficking.”
The ministers also expressed concern over the “complex human and social and economic situation in Afghanistan and the dangers of refugee invasion in the region.”
