Pakistan’s FM tells ECO concerns persist over Afghanistan

Pakistan’s caretaker foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Tuesday that while the war has ended in Afghanistan and security has been restored, there has not been corresponding progress on the rights of women and girls and on countering the threat posed by terrorist groups.

In a statement delivered at the 27th ECO Council of Ministers meeting in Azerbaijan, Jilani said he believed the pathway to progress in Afghanistan was with constructive engagement with the leaders of the Islamic Emirate.

“As friends and neighbors of Afghanistan, we, as members of the ECO, have a critical role to play to this end,” Dawn News quoted him as saying.

Jilani also stressed the need for the IEA to leverage connectivity as a way to achieve economic revival and growth in Afghanistan, which he said was key to sustainable peace, stability and prosperity.

ECO, or the Economic Cooperation Organization, was founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Türkiye to promote economic, technical and cultural cooperation among member states. It is also the successor to the Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) organization.