Afghan officials attend Shanghai summit to gain its permanent membership

Officials in Ministry of Foreign Affairs have stated that Afghan officials will attend the Shanghai summit incoming Thursday to gain the full membership of the following regional cooperation organization, the full membership will enable Afghanistan to turn into a business point for the regional countries.

The following summit will be held at Uzbekistan, hopes are underway to receive its permanent membership in the future, Afghanistan is holding supervisor role for the time being in Shanghai organization.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Spokesman Khairullah Azad said,” If Afghanistan becomes the permanent member of Shanghai it will turn our homeland into a business center for the regional countries.”

International relation experts have believed that having the permanent membership of the Shanghai will help Afghanistan tackle terrorism.

Professor Muzafar Khawari said,” Having full membership of Shanghai will keep the Afghanistan’s foreign policy balanced, it will encourage Russia to take part into Afghanistan’s peace talk’s process, and China will also help Afghanistan on boosting economy.”

“Membership of Shanghai equals NATO membership for Afghanistan this is so important Professor Shekib Muntaziri said,”

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, these countries, except for Uzbekistan had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization, On July 10, 2015, the SCO decided to admit India and Pakistan as full members, and they are expected to join by 2016.

Reported by Ahmad Farshad Saleh