Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban wants to be invited to attend the upcoming summit of BRICS, an intergovernmental group of major emerging economies organized by Russia. Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat made the call in a video message broadcast by their state broadcaster on Wednesday.
Basically, BRICS consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 5 more countries joined BRICS this year. The countries are Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. A meeting with the leaders of these ten countries will be held on October 22-24 in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan. The Taliban have asked for an invitation from host Russia to participate.
“BRICS is an important economic forum, and as a developing economy, Afghanistan should join such economic gatherings,” Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said in a video message. The Islamic Emirate wishes to attend the upcoming BRICS Forum, and this request has been formally communicated to the host country.’
Despite such a demand from the Taliban, there was no immediate response from Russia.
Notably, Moscow has developed close informal ties with Afghanistan’s government leaders since three years ago, when Western countries led by the United States withdrew their troops after nearly two decades of war with the then insurgent Taliban. However, Russia has not yet recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government.
But with the removal of the Afghan group from Russia’s list of designated terrorist organizations, Moscow is on its way to formally recognizing Kabul authorities.
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