Foreign ministers of India, China, Pakistan and five other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) began a key meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Wednesday with a focus on the situation in Afghanistan.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is attending the meeting, tweeted during the day that the world, the region and the Afghan people all want the same end state.

In his series of tweets, Jaishankar said an independent, neutral, unified, peaceful, democratic and prosperous nation is sought and that there is a need to cease “violence and terrorist attacks against civilians and state representatives, settle conflict through political dialogue, and respect interests of all ethnic groups”.

He also stated that its important to ensure that neighbours are not threatened by terrorism, separatism and extremism and that the “challenge is to act seriously and sincerely on these beliefs. Because there are forces at work with a very different agenda”. 

“The world is against seizure of power by violence and force. It will not legitimise such actions,” he tweeted.

“Peace negotiations in earnest is the only answer. An acceptable compromise that reflects Doha process, Moscow format and Istanbul process is essential.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are among the participants at the meeting.

The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.