The secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) informed the grouping on Tuesday that a planned meeting of foreign ministers in New York this week has been cancelled because of a “lack of concurrence” among member states. The informal meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers was to be held in-person on September 25 on the sidelines of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
It is learnt from reliable sources that Pakistan wanted the Taliban to represent Afghanistan in the SAARC meet. India along with some other members objected to the proposal and due to lack of consensus or concurrence, the meeting was cancelled. Taliban has not been recognised by India to date. The new regime in Kabul is still not recognised by the world and top cabinet ministers are blacklisted by the UN. Amir Khan Muttaqi is the acting foreign minister of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and he is unlikely to attend any UN and affiliated meetings. In fact, last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meet said that the Taliban is a non-inclusive government, the world must think before accepting or recognising the regime in Afghanistan. Nepal was the host of the meet, which is annually held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. However, the Nepalese Foreign Ministry issued a communiqué saying that the meet stands cancelled owing to “lack of concurrence from all Member States”.
