ECO ministerial meeting begins in Iran, ‘Taliban not invited’

ISLAMABAD: The 28th technical session of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) foreign ministers’ meeting commenced on Monday in Iran.

Ahmad Masoumi-Far, head of Iran’s northeastern foreign affairs office, said the session included the ECO secretary-general and senior officials from member states. The primary objective was to finalise the agenda for the ministerial summit scheduled for Tuesday.

A video released by Iran’s IRNA news agency confirmed the absence of Taliban representatives at the meeting. Neither Afghanistan’s national flag nor the Taliban’s are displayed alongside the flags of other member states. While Afghanistan remains a member of the ECO, the Taliban government has not been formally recognised since taking power in 2021. Consequently, the Taliban have not been included in ECO meetings.

The Iranian media confirmed that the Taliban were not invited to the current session. According to Iranian media reports, delegations and ambassadors from member countries, including the foreign ministers of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and the ECO secretary-general, had already arrived to participate in the session.

The ECO, a regional bloc, was established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey to promote economic and cultural cooperation among member states. In 1992, seven additional countries—Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—joined the organisation, bringing the total number of members to 10.