SAARC Meet Cancelled After Pakistan Insists On Taliban Representation, Says Report

Representational pic; courtesy: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: Foreign ministers’ meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries which was scheduled for Saturday in New York has reportedly been cancelled.

Sources of news agency ANI said that Pakistan insisted that Taliban represent the Afghanistan in the SAARC meet.

It is learnt that India and some other members objected to the proposal and due to lack of consensus or concurrence, the meeting was called off.

Nepal was hosting the annual meet, which is held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Till date, Taliban has not been recognised by India. Also, the world still does not recognise the new regime in Kabul and top cabinet ministers have been blacklisted by the United Nations.

The acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is unlikely to attend any UN and affiliated meetings.

It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Taliban is a non-inclusive government and the world must think before accepting or recognising the regime in Afghanistan. He said this at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meet last week.

The SAARC is the regional intergovernmental organisation of South Asia’s eight countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

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