A 20-member delegation of Emirate Islamic Afghanistan led by acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Mutaqi in an official visit to Islamabad met with Pakistani officials.
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson to Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a tweet has said that ministers of foreign affairs and finance and a working group were part of the Afghan delegation.
Expansion of bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, economic development, trade, Afghan refugees and facilities in commuting of Afghan refugees were discussed between the two sides.
Besides the respective issues, both sides discussed regional connectivity, air and ground corridors for trade between the two countries.
Participants of the Troika Plus meeting on Afghanistan held in Islamabad on Friday urged the world countries to provide Afghanistan with humanitarian assistance and economic support to Afghans. The meeting was attended by representatives from Pakistan, China, Russia and the United States discussed the latest situation in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, other issues relevant to human rights, women rights and how to save Afghanistan from a humanitarian crisis were part of the meeting’s agenda.
The meeting was attended by newly-appointed US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West, Russian special representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov and Chinese representative for Afghanistan.
Pakistan minister for foreign affairs Shah Mahmoud Quraishi in his speech in the Troika meeting said that it was better for the world countries to deal with the newly-established government of the Taliban as they were working to do so.
According to Quraishi, no-body wants Afghanistan to return to civil war and nobody wants economically collapsing of the country.
“All countries of the world have common concern and inter-ests in Afghanistan and maintain-ing peace and stability in the country is the responsibly of all,” Quraishi said, asking the U.S. to help the Taliban get access to the blocked money of Afghanistan as it could help Afghanistan revive its economic situation.
With the Taliban takeover in mid-August of the current year, US has blocked nearly $9.5 billion of Afghanistan’s banks reservoir.
On the other hand, participants of the Troika Plus meeting in a statement expressed concern over increasing severe economic situation in Afghanistan and stressed on strongly supporting the people of Afghanistan.
According to the joint statement, the participants “called on the Taliban to work with fellow Afghans to take steps to form an inclusive and representative government that respects the rights of all Afghans and provides for the equal rights of women and girls to participate in all aspects of Afghan society.” The participants welcomed the Islamic Emirate’s move to al-low for the safe passage of all who wish to travel to and from Afghanistan, expressing that with the onset of winter, arrangements should be made to “establish air-ports countrywide that can accept commercial air traffic, which are essential to enable the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian assistance.”
Participants at the meeting agreed for continued engagement with the Islamic Emirate to “en-courage the implementation of moderate and prudent policies” that can help in achieving a stable and prosperous Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban takeover in mid-August, regional and neigh-boring countries have held various meetings on Afghanistan. New Delhi was also hosting a regional meeting titled ‘Regional Security’, the participants of which asked for humanitarian support to Afghanistan.
The Kabul Times
