On Wednesday 07 November 2018, the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Secretariat of the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) based in Kabul, co-organized the first meeting of Friends of RECCA Group with the participation of ambassadors and senior representatives from diplomatic corps in Canberra, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, India, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Russia, and the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA).

In his opening remarks, H.E Mr. Wahidullah Waissi, ambassador of the I.R of Afghanistan to Australia and non-resident ambassador to New Zealand and Fiji, highlighted the significant role that Regional RECCA has played since its inception in 2005 as an important platform in promoting regional economic cooperation and integration in central-south Asia and beyond. He urged participants to use the friends of RECCA Group as an opportunity to strengthen partnerships, networking and friendship among the RECCA region and articulated that these meetings will be held in Canberra on a regular basis.

Mr. Hassan Soroosh, Director General for Economic Cooperation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan delivered a detailed presentation on the vision, objectives, priority projects and the new approach and developments under RECCA for enhancing energy cooperation, trade and connectivity, business to business promotion, the inclusion of a women’s economic empowerment component as well as the establishment of a research centre under RECCA.

As part of the implementation mechanism of the aforementioned platform,, the Friends of RECCA meetings have been held so far in Washington DC, New Delhi and Vienna and will continue to be convened in major capitals across the world aiming to share updates and exploring new areas of collaboration and coordination between the diplomatic community from the RECCA regional and partner countries and related international institutions.

The next meeting of Friends of RECCA Group will be held in Canberra in 2019 prior to the 8th RECCA Ministerial Conference. For more information please visit: www.recca.af