TASHKENT, November 9. /TASS/. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in a speech at the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit urged that efforts be made to engage Afghanistan, whose representatives were not invited to the event, more actively in regional integration processes.
"In addition, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Afghanistan, which is a member of our organization, is absent at today’s summit. In the face of complex challenges, we cannot abandon the multiethnic people of Afghanistan, who have been our close neighbors for centuries. Engaging this country in the process of regional integration is a necessary condition for our sustainable development," the Uzbek president emphasized.
Mirziyoyev also urged the international community to increase humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and address the country’s profound social and economic problems. Afghanistan is a member of the ECO, but as Uzbek Presidential Spokesman Sherzod Asadov stated earlier, no representatives of Kabul were invited to the summit because the international community does not recognize the current Afghan government in Kabul.
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is a regional intergovernmental economic organization encompassing Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. The organization was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. The headquarters of the ECO’s permanent secretariat is located in Tehran.