Afghanistan should be attracted to the creation of regional transport corridors within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will also serve as a stabilizing factor for the country, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov said on Thursday
TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th September, 2019) Afghanistan should be attracted to the creation of regional transport corridors within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will also serve as a stabilizing factor for the country, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov said on Thursday.
The 18th SCO meeting of ministers responsible for external economic and trade activities began in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent earlier in the day.
"It is important to involve Afghanistan in the formation of regional transport routes, which will serve as another factor in stabilizing the situation in this country and will increase the volume of trade and economic cooperation between the SCO countries and Afghanistan," Norov said in an address to the summit's participants.
The SCO chief noted that the shortest transport routes from China to the Middle East lied through Russia and the Central Asian countries.
Norov believes that the Hairatan-Mazar-e-Sharif railway, with its extension to Afghanistan's city of Herat and access to Pakistan's Peshawar, will form a new transit corridor that connects to Iranian, Pakistani and Indian railways.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization, currently comprising eight member states, namely China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It also has four observer states such as Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are the organization's dialogue partners.
