KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The 28th technical meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Foreign Ministers began on Monday, December 2, in Mashhad, Iran.
Ahmad Masoumifar, head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s office in northeastern Iran, told IRNA News Agency that the meeting was attended by the ECO Secretary General and senior officials from member states.
The primary aim of the session is to finalize the agenda for the foreign ministers’ summit scheduled for Tuesday, December 3.
Taliban representatives were absent from the meeting, as highlighted in a video released by IRNA. Neither Afghanistan’s national flag nor the Taliban’s flag was displayed alongside the flags of other member countries.
Although Afghanistan remains an ECO member, it has been excluded from the organization’s meetings since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, as the regime lacks formal recognition. Iranian media confirmed that the Taliban were not invited to the current session.
Delegations and ambassadors from ECO member states have already arrived, along with the foreign ministers of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and the ECO Secretary General, according to Iranian media.
The ECO, a regional bloc, was established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey to foster economic and cultural cooperation among member states. In 1992, the organization expanded to include seven additional members: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, bringing its total membership to 10 countries.
