More than ten years: the SCO is blocking the work of Afghanistan
Afghanistan cannot fully participate in the work of the SCO due to the objections of one of the organization's members, Russian Presidential special envoy Zamir Kabulov told Izvestia. According to experts, given the ongoing conflict with Pakistan, it is Islamabad that we are talking about. The SCO structure itself creates additional difficulties: there is still confusion in the organization with various categories of participants. In particular, the status of observers and partners has not yet been unified. As a result, Kabul remains in limbo. This diplomatic impasse also complicates the settlement of relations with Pakistan, during the recent clashes with which about a thousand people were killed. Russia is also trying to help stabilize the situation: this year, representatives of the Taliban movement will take part in meetings of the Moscow format on Afghanistan, Kabulov added.
Who is keeping Afghanistan from integrating with the SCO
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is experiencing an internal crisis caused by the uncertain status of Afghanistan, which was accepted as an observer back in 2012, but after the Taliban came to power, participation in the organization's work has been practically frozen. The last time official representatives of Afghanistan were invited to the summit was in 2020. This can only be changed by consensus, but there is no agreement among the participants.
— Of course, they would like to become full participants. Formally, they are, but due to the objections of one of the SCO members, where all decisions are made by consensus, this process has not yet been launched," Russian Presidential special envoy Zamir Kabulov told Izvestia. — All other SCO members contact and cooperate with the Afghans in one way or another. I'm sure it will happen after a while.
Kabulov did not name specific countries, but it is obvious that Pakistan is the main opponent of Afghanistan within the Shanghai Ten today. Informed sources admitted that Islamabad could indeed block closer cooperation between Afghanistan and the SCO. Izvestia has sent a request for comment to the republic's Embassy in Moscow.
Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have recently escalated to the limit. The smoldering territorial conflict escalated dramatically in the summer of 2025, resulting in a series of armed clashes — airstrikes and artillery attacks. Islamabad accuses the Afghan authorities of harboring members of the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) involved in terrorist attacks in Pakistan. As a result, since the last escalation, the death toll is approaching 1,000 people, including civilians and military personnel. Just two weeks ago, Kabul announced that the Pakistani Air Force had struck the east of the country. 13 people were killed, 11 of them children. The government assures that the houses of civilians have been attacked.
— Pakistanis are unlikely to support Afghanistan in the SCO. And it's not even about the clashes on the border, but about the fact that key security issues have not been resolved. Moreover, it is the fault of the Afghan side — this is the official position of Pakistan," a researcher at the Center for the Indian Ocean Region at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) told Izvestia Gleb Makarevich RAN.
Of course, there have been attempts to resolve the conflict, and the latest one originates in Chinese Xinjiang. Back in April, consultations were held there with the mediation of Beijing, which launched the so-called "Urumqi process." However, so far it looks more like negotiations about negotiations, since the parties, in fact, only confirmed the need for a diplomatic agreement and a refusal to escalate. The process is still far from completion, Natalia Zamaraeva, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.
As for the SCO as a whole, and not just China, the organization could help resolve the differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan only if the parties turn to their partners, said Nikolai Silaev, a leading researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies at the Russian Foreign Ministry. In April, the Secretary General of the organization, Nurlan Yermekbayev, reported that nothing of the kind had been received by the secretariat. The SCO has not yet played a decisive role in resolving internal conflicts. A striking example is the historically tense relations between Pakistan and India. In the spring of 2025, New Delhi even launched a military operation due to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
What are the main difficulties in the SCO
The position of individual countries is not the only problem for Afghanistan in the SCO. In order to fully join the work, the organization's members must recognize the Taliban government, Nikolai Silaev told Izvestia. So far, only Russia has officially done this.
"If there is no recognition, there is no invitation," the expert noted. — Even if Pakistan loves the Taliban as its own tomorrow, they will not be invited to the SCO meeting until all participants in the organization recognize their government.
Even before the official recognition, Moscow was comprehensively developing cooperation with Kabul. The Taliban, for example, came to last year's SPIEF.
— This year, I am sure, they will participate in meetings of the Moscow format on Afghanistan (Regular diplomatic meetings at the level of special representatives and ministers, established in 2017. — Izvestia), — Kabulov said.
More serious areas of cooperation are also developing. In May, at the International Security Forum in Russia, the parties signed an agreement on military-technical cooperation. As Zamir Kabulov clarified to Izvestia, this is not the immediate start of a concrete practical partnership, but rather the legal basis for it.Due to the lack of official recognition, the organization's steel members are interacting more cautiously with Afghanistan, although there have been some successes. Since last year, India has embarked on a policy of rapprochement. In the fall of 2025, New Delhi decided to upgrade the status of its technical mission in Kabul to a full-fledged embassy. Then the head of the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, Amir Khan Muttaki, arrived in India for official talks — this is the highest visit of the Taliban to the country since the coup in 2021. In January 2024, Chinese President Xi Jinping personally accepted credentials from the Taliban ambassador. This is not yet official recognition, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry legally classifies contacts as "a normal procedure for interacting with the interim government." The situation is about the same in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran. And Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have removed the movement from the lists of banned and terrorist organizations. Tajikistan has the toughest position, apart from Pakistan, because of the security risks, although there is now a certain "thaw" in relations between the two countries.
However, these steps are not enough to fully involve Afghanistan in the work of the SCO. In addition, issues related to the format and level of further cooperation remain unresolved. An excessive number of categories — full members, dialogue partners, and observers — resulted in excessive bureaucracy. To simplify and facilitate the management of the organization, at the Tianjin Summit on September 1, 2025, it was decided to introduce the general status of "SCO partner", eliminating "observers" and "dialogue partners". Izvestia found out that the merger has not happened yet.
— This decision launched the negotiation process on amendments and additions to the legal framework of the organization. Work in this direction is currently underway under the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Republic. All SCO observer states and SCO dialogue partners will retain their statuses until the negotiation process is completed and amendments and additions come into force," Deputy Secretary General Ahmad Saidmurodzoda told Izvestia.
Moreover, in the same Tianjin, Laos joined the organization as a dialogue partner. And now there are 20 more applications in the basket, Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev said in June 2026. Obviously, there is a lot of long work to be done to simplify all these categories for the rapid adaptation of new participants.
Thus, while the SCO is only forming a more or less unified system, the organization is unlikely to be able to undertake large-scale tasks to resolve regional conflicts. Although the fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism is one of its key goals, the multi-level structure does not allow for effective solutions to security problems in the region.
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