The SCO meeting comes at a time when western countries are shifting their focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. The SCO conference is being held ahead of 31 March meeting on Afghanistan in The Hague, Netherlands, convened by the United Nations, under the initiative of the United States. India, which has an observer status in the SCO, is participating in both the meetings.

Patrick Moon, Deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs will represent Washington, which has been apprehensive about SCO amid fears of the growing influence of Russia in Central Asia. The US move to participate this time suggests that Washington is looking for new partners to sort out Afghan mess, a marked change from its position till recently.

India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia, observer states of the SCO, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and senior officials from the European Union, NATO and other international organizations will participate in the conference.

Patrick Moon is expected to interact with Iran’s representative, Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific, Mahdi Akhundzadeh, over the possibility of involving Teheran in Afghanistan as has been widely speculated recently. Incidentally Iran, India and Russia had closely worked together in 2001, and had played a significant role in the exit of the Taliban from Kabul then.

The SCO had earlier invited India to attend the meet keeping in mind its contribution to rebuild the war-torn country. New Delhi has already invested as much as US$1.2 billion for infrastructure development in Afghanistan.

India will pitch for an integrated approach to Afghanistan covering security and development sectors at the SCO meeting. New Delhi has been increasingly concerned about Taliban’s peace deal in Pakistan and will caution world leaders against treating any section of the Taliban as "good", an apparent message to the US President Barack Obama for his inclination to hold talks with the "moderate" section of the militia.

At these meetings, India will present proposals for stabilizing Afghanistan, which would include giving thrust to developmental initiatives besides military and security components in creating a zone of peace--a process that would alienate the Taliban.