COOPERATION BETWEEN THE SCO AND POST-WAR AFGANISTAN: POLITICAL CHALLENGES

The article is devoted to a very urgent problem of political and economic settlement of the situation in Afghanistan in the context of multilateral cooperation with the SCO countries. Since the 2014 NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan the situation in the country has become aggravated, the Taliban are trying to challenge the Central government in Kabul through both repeated terrorist attacks and seizure of some mountainous regions of the country. Taking into account the current strata's support of terrorists in Afghanistan, the threat of Taliban and Al-Qaida's advent to power is growing, which undermines the regional security and is destabilizing the SCO neighbouring countries. Active economic, military and political cooperation between Afghanistan and the SCO, with Russia and China in the first place, gives the Afghani people some hope for an escape from the crisis, gradual overcoming the consequences of the Taliban's long and damaging administration, which destroyed Afghanistan's industry, from the lingering war of the NATO against terrorists and the US coalition's failure to act in social and economic spheres. The growth of Afghanistan and the SCO's cooperation faces active resistance on the part of the USA fearing to lose military and political control in the region. In total with the “great war” against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, impetuously aggravating economic situation in Pakistan, global confrontation of Russia and the USA, establishment of the Russian - Chinese alliance and the intensification of unpredictability of the US foreign policy after D. Trump's coming to power, cooperation between Afghanistan and the SCO gains new urgency, which means both political risks and big advantages for the two parties, and which changes the regional military-political and socio-economic reality.