MOSCOW, July 10. /TASS/. At a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers in Dushanbe on July 13-14, the foreign ministers of SCO member states will focus on a draft plan of joint action to facilitate Afghanistan’s social and economic reconstruction, Bakhtiyer Khakimov, Russia’s Special Presidential Envoy for SCO Affairs and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador at Large, said in an interview with TASS.
"Within the SCO framework, we plan to discuss another initiative put forward by Uzbekistan, which is a draft plan of joint action to help Afghanistan’s social and economic reconstruction. We believe that such a document should be worked out by all the ministries and agencies concerned and approved, for instance, at the level of heads of government. It is crucial to draft a serious and solid document," the diplomat said.
Khakimov pointed out that the SCO countries have multiple economic projects for cooperation with Afghanistan and are currently discussing ideas of how to rebuild old infrastructure. He drew attention to the fact that about 160 facilities were built in Afghanistan with the assistance of the Soviet Union, most of which were operational at the time of the Soviet troops’ withdrawal from the country.
"Now there are ideas to reconstruct and develop them. Taking into regard that a variety of bilateral projects are being implemented by Russia, China, India, Uzbekistan and other SCO countries, why not put them under the SCO auspices?" Khakimov added.