Economy

Taliban’s Abdul Ghani Baradar travels to Azerbaijan for regional summit

A senior Taliban delegation led by Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy chief minister for economic affairs, travelled to Azerbaijan on Tuesday to participate in the 17th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), scheduled for July 3 and 4.

Baradar’s office said in a statement that the delegation plans to meet with Azerbaijani officials to discuss bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

The summit brings together member states of the ECO, a regional intergovernmental organization focused on economic, technical, and cultural collaboration among countries in Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and the Caucasus.

Baradar, who remains on a United Nations sanctions list, was granted a travel exemption in February for a trip to Uzbekistan. As of Tuesday, there was no publicly available information on the UN sanctions committee website indicating whether a similar waiver was issued for his visit to Azerbaijan.