SCO observer status to give Afghanistan impetus for development

18:52, 15 June 2011

ASTANA. June 15. KAZINFORM Tajikistan supports the application of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai for the status of observer at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon said at the Organization's jubilee summit here on Wednesday. "We have no doubt that a positive decision on the matter would be an important step toward Afghanistan's more active participation in the processes of multilateral cooperation and integration in the region," he said.

He stressed that SCO countries "should continue giving to Afghanistan's government the assistance it needs to consolidate the successes achieved."

Rakhmon believes one contact group SCO-Afghanistan is obviously not enough to fulfill the tasks set in this direction. "We should draw on additional political, economic and administrative resources to increase our contribution to the cause of Afghanistan's renaissance," he said.

Tajikistan's president holds that assisting Afghanistan' s social and economic renaissance by increased participation in the projects for the reconstruction of the country's economy is one of the directions "in which the Organization can use its potential." "Assistance to Afghanistan is one of the important and topical tasks of the Organization in the period ahead," he stressed; Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass.

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