Dmitry Mezentsev: The problems of peaceful settlement in Afghanistan can only be solved with the central coordinating role of the UN

Dmitry Mezentsev on February 13, 2014, answering a question on the Afghan crisis during a work meeting in the editorial office of People's Daily Online said, "The problems of peaceful settlement in Afghanistan can only be solved with the central coordinating role of the United Nations."

2014 is the year of withdrawing the main contingent of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and also the year of the presidential election.

The Secretary-General of the SCO stated that the SCO position towards Afghanistan is defined by the heads of the member countries of the Organization. The final documents of the Beijing Summit 2012 made clear, that the SCO member countries are in favor of building an independent, neutral, peaceful, prosperous state, free from terrorism and drug-related crimes in Afghanistan. "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization should not take - even to a small degree - the functions and tasks that NATO once performed. However SCO must not lose focus on the Afghan problem", - said Dmitry Mezentsev.

At the Beijing Summit of Heads of Member States of the SCO in 2012, it was decided to grant Afghanistan observer status.

D. Mezencev said that in March 2013 the Secretariat delegation headed by the SCO Secretary-General participated, in the framework of the "Security Day" of the OSCE, in the discussion on "The interaction of the international community with Afghanistan and Central Asia", in open debates of the UN Security Council "on Afghanistan" in New York. He said, that at the meeting with permanent representatives of all Member States and a number of observers at the UN, the members mostly spoke the same - "the SCO" - language .

"For us it was very important to participate in the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in the framework of the "Istanbul Process" in Almaty in April last year, and in the OSCE Permanent Council in July. Today we are looking forward to the 4th Ministerial Conference of the People's Republic of China in 2014 " - summed up the SCO Secretary-General Dmitry Mezentsev .