MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. There have been no contacts with Afghanistan's new government via the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russia's special presidential representative for SCO affairs, Bekhtiyer Khakimov, told TASS.

"Nobody has given such a mandate to anybody [for SCO contacts with Afghanistan's new government]. Most of the contacts are bilateral," he said.

Asked if the SCO summit would consider the question of recognizing Afghanistan's new government, Khakimov explained that recognition was an individual right of each country, but the SCO's collective position has been expressed and reaffirmed more than once.

"We support political settlement in Afghanistan. We seek an inclusive peace process involving all ethnic, religious and political forces. Everything will depend on how the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), which has risen to power, will go about the business of implementing the pledges and promises, rather vocal ones, that it has made," Khakimov said.