The Afghan Issue on the SCO Platform: Between Declarative and Real Policy

The article examines how threats to regional security and stability in Eurasia originating from Afghanistan have shaped the priorities and institutional framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), as well as the organization’s role in promoting multilateral regional cooperation with Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. The SCO was established at a time when Afghanistan had become a major focus of international attention in the context of the US-led “war on terror.” Given that most SCO member states are Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors, the organization could not remain indifferent to this source of instability on its borders. However, despite the member states’ direct interest in stabilizing the regional security environment, maintaining a sustained dialogue with Afghanistan, and creating such mechanisms as the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) and the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, the organization has so far failed to become the principal platform for multilateral regional engagement on Afghan issues. Instead, most regional interaction concerning Afghanistan has taken place outside the SCO framework. This outcome can be explained both by the SCO’s institutional design, particularly its consensus-based decision-making procedures, and by the preference of its member states for bilateral engagement with Afghanistan in line with their established foreign policy practices.

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