A meeting of foreign
ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries,
which was slated to be held on Saturday in New York, has been cancelled,
apparently after Pakistan pushed for allowing Taliban to represent Afghanistan
in the SAARC meet, according to an ANI report. After Pakistan raised the point
about Taliban representing Afghanistan, India and some other countries objected
to the proposal causing the meet to get cancelled.

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The SAARC meeting
of foreign ministers was supposed to be hosted by Nepal on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The 76th UNGA is currently underway. A
majority of SAARC members had agreed that an empty chair be kept for
Afghanistan at the meet, however Pakistan objected and the meeting was
cancelled. The SAARC Secretariat told ANI that the meeting was cancelled due to
the lack of concurrence from member states.

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The proposal to
allow Taliban to represent Afghanistan earned India’s ire because India is yet
to recognise the Taliban government in Kabul. In fact, there are doubts on
whether India would recognise the government at all.

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Only last week,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Taliban have put in place a
non-inclusive government and the world must think before accepting or
recognising the regime in Afghanistan. Modi was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), where he pointed out that women and minorities have no representation
in the government in Kabul.

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Afghanistan’s
acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, a member of the Taliban led
government, is unlikely to attend any United Nations or UN-affiliated meetings at
this time.  

SAARC, or South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, is an intergovernmental
organisation comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. SAARC was established by the signing of the SAARC charter in Dhaka
in 1985.