The 28th meeting of the foreign ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) member states will be held in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad next week.

Spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Esmaeil Baqaei said on Sunday that the upcoming meeting will be attended by the ministers and senior officials of ECO, directors of the regional specialized departments of the organization, and the secretaries general of a number of multilateral economic organizations.

The meeting will be chaired by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, Iranian local media reported.

Iran is holding the rotating presidency of ECO in 2024.

The Tehran-headquartered ECO was established by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey in 1985.

The main purpose of the organization is to promote economic, technical, and cultural cooperation among the member states.

In 1992, the organization was expanded to include seven new members, namely Afghanistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), also known as Daesh, has claimed responsibility for a gun attack that left 10 people dead at a Sufi shrine in northern Baghlan province.

The interior ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qani confirmed that a gunman opened fire on Sufis taking part in a weekly ritual at the Sayed Pasha Agha shrine in a remote area of Nahrin district.

Abdul Ghayoor Khadim, a provincial police official, said that several people were arrested in connection with the incident, and that an investigation has been launched.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said the completion of legal procedures to remove the Islamic Emirate from Moscow’s terrorist list will provide positive impetus to Russian-Afghan relations.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency, Rudenko said “removing the terrorist organization’s status from the Taliban Movement (Islamic Emirate) will attribute a positive impetus to Russian-Afghan interaction in various spheres, in the economy in the first instance."

"As regards the issue of the official recognition of current Afghan authorities, it is early to talk about it thus far. Let’s act gradually, step by step, but we do not intend to artificially impede the processes," Rudenko noted.

"Russia is taking steps of establishing practical interaction with authorities of Afghanistan on issues of mutual interest," the Russian diplomat added.

Early last month, Russia's Foreign Ministry said a decision to remove the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) from a list of terrorist organisations had been "taken at the highest level".

This came after Putin stated in July that Russia considered the IEA an ally in the fight against terrorism.

Russia has been slowly building ties with the Islamic Emirate since it seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 but the IEA is still officially outlawed in Russia.

In response to Russia’s comments last month, the IEA’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the Islamic Emirate “appreciates the positive remarks by the high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation in this regard and hope to see more effective steps soon."