Shanghai role in Afghanistan peace and counter terrorism

The 18th meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member-state was held in Tashkent, capital city of Uzbekistan amid of increasing threats posed by Daesh and all other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, the region and world.
Increasing threats posed by terrorist groups in the region, lack of cooperation of regional countries in counter terrorism and useless efforts of the world countries towards counter extremism are still top challenges which should be addressed by SCO member-state through joint cooperation.
SCO member-state countries can exert necessary pressures on terrorist groups as well as their supporters and help Afghanistan in various sectors in particular economic development.
A number of Afghan political experts believe that SCO member-state meeting can be effective in Afghanistan peace process and rooting out terrorist groups in particular Daesh.
“If regional countries want to prevent from increasing activities of Daesh in the region, they should jointly work to expert pressures on terrorist groups posing threats to the region,” said Haroon Mir, an Afghan political expert.
He considered good relations of the government of Afghanistan with a number of SCO member-state countries as an opportunity towards maintaining peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, political and regional experts say common cooperation in connection with counter terrorism in particular fighting Daesh in Afghanistan can be a good state for the SCO member-state countries.
The government of Afghanistan is also working to create regional consensus in both maintaining peace in the country as well as fighting terrorist groups as consensus related to the country’s peace process has been already created.
Recently, regional and world countries have made continued efforts towards maintaining peace in Afghanistan, but all believe that intra-Afghan dialogue is the only key for peace in the country.
Afghan government officials consider extremism and terrorism as the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan and the region; therefore, it is necessary that regional countries in particular SCO member-state countries should jointly work towards counter terrorism in the region.
Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah on the first day of the SCO meeting asked for continued and increasing efforts towards counter terrorism in the region.
Both Afghanistan government officials and political experts say terrorist groups in particular Daesh is a world threat; therefore, counter terrorism needs common cooperation of the world and regional countries.
“Afghanistan is undoubtedly among countries that has been mostly harmed by terrorist groups that are still operation and posing threats to the country; therefore, SCO member-state countries should play significant role in counter terrorism in particular maintaining peace in Afghanistan,” said Amir Mohammad, an Afghan political expert.
He added that SCO member-state countries could play effective role in peace, counter terrorism and economic development in Afghanistan as most countries in the neighborhood of Afghanistan are part and have the membership of SCO.
It is worth mentioning that The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), or Shanghai Pact, is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China,  Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan,  Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Charter, formally establishing the organization, was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003. In 2012, Afghanistan was accepted as overseeing member of the organization; therefore, a new chapter was created in relations between Afghanistan and SCO member-state countries.