Despite the Islamic Emirate’s (IEA) request to attend this year’s BRICS summit in Kazan, in Russia, Afghanistan has not been invited to attend.
The two-day summit, which got underway on Tuesday will bring together presidents of Russia, China, India, Brazil, Egypt and Iran along with other leaders.
So far the IEA has not commented on its absence but in May this year, an Islamic Emirate spokesman confirmed they had asked to attend the next meeting.
He said at the time, Afghanistan had good economic relations and trade exchanges with BRICS countries and hoped to participate.
However, Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special representative for Afghanistan affairs, said earlier this month that an invitation to the meeting would not only be dependent on Russia but also on the other member countries.
Although the caretaker government of Afghanistan has not yet been officially recognized by any country, it has good relations with the founding countries of BRICS, including China and Russia.
BRICS, which is an economic organization, was established in 2009 at the initiative of Russia. Brazil, Russia, India and China were its first members, while South Africa joined a year later.
More recently, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia also joined.