The Taliban administration has been excluded from the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, despite earlier claims by its officials that they would be part of the gathering.
China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin announced that the summit, scheduled for 31 August to 1 September, will host delegations from over 20 countries and at least 10 international organisations, including the United Nations—but Afghanistan’s interim rulers are not on the list.
In April, the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had insisted China had extended an invitation, yet they were absent from July’s foreign ministers’ meeting and remain sidelined now, while even Mongolia—also an observer state—has been formally invited.
The SCO summit will bring together leaders from Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Mongolia. Since its founding in 2001, the SCO has grown into one of the world’s largest regional blocs, but Afghanistan’s interim government remains isolated, with no recognition except from Russia.
The exclusion highlights regional unease over the Taliban’s provision of safe havens to militant groups destabilising neighbouring countries.
