An Indonesian delegation in a meeting with Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul assured that Indonesia will cooperate with Afghanistan in the area of healthcare and will offer scholarships to students.

The delegation comprised Muhammad Yusuf Kalla, the Chairman of the Indonesian Red Crescent Society and Mosque Council, Hamid Awaludin, former minister of law and human rights, and Sudirman Said and former minister of energy and mineral resources.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said that discussions focused on the expansionof bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Indonesia, encompassing political, economic, trade, and people-to-people aspects.

Muttaqi highlighted the shared religious and cultural respect between the two nations and expressed Afghanistan’s desire to strengthen and enhance relations with its friendly and brotherly country, Indonesia.

He noted that after 45 years of war, peace has finally been established in Afghanistan, creating favorable opportunities for trade and foreign investment in sectors such as energy, mining, agriculture, road construction, and industry.

He noted that Afghanistan’s relations with the international community are expanding, and it maintains positive ties with neighboring countries and the region, adding that Afghanistan is keen on expanding its relations with Southeast Asian countries.

Muttaqi went on to say that given its strategic location, Afghanistan has established facilities in the areas of trade, investment, and transit between Central and South Asia. Additionally, it is actively engaged in major regional economic projects, including the CASA-1000 energy project, TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline, and Trans-Afghan Railway Project, he said.

Muttaqi emphasized that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has successfully tackled threats posed by Daesh and drug trafficking, assuring all countries that Afghanistan is not a threat to any nation.

According to the statement, Kalla expressed a positive evaluation of Afghanistan’s political and security situation. He expressed Indonesia’s desire to expand relations with Afghanistan across various fields and pledged to provide accurate information about Afghanistan to the Indonesian government and people.

He stated that Indonesia hopes to cooperate with Afghanistan in the field of healthcare, and offering scholarships and fellowships to Afghan students.

Both sides emphasized the importance of expanding and strengthening relations between Afghanistan and Indonesia in political, economic, trade, cultural, and educational fields.

Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif says that at the Bonn conference, the United States planned to establish a “good Taliban government” in Afghanistan, but Europe had tried to establish a monarchy in this country.

Speaking in an interview, Zarif said that Iran met its demands at the Bonn conference and played an important role in the formation of the former government of Afghanistan.

In this interview about Iran’s fight against terrorist groups, Zarif added that accepting terrorist groups in neighboring countries is a violation of the principle of good neighborliness.

He said Tehran had maximum diplomatic coordination with the Americans at the Bonn conference.

The Bonn Conference was held in Bonn, Germany in December 2001 to establish a new government in Afghanistan and prevent chaos after the overthrow of the previous government of the Islamic Emirate.

On December 13, 2001, after 9 days of discussion, a two-stage agreement was signed between the participants, which laid the foundation for the establishment of a new system that would become the republic government.

This government however ruled for 20 years but collapsed in August 2021 and the Islamic Emirate regained control of Afghanistan.

The Polio Free Afghanistan organization announced Sunday in a post on X that a polio vaccination campaign will begin Monday and be carried out across Afghanistan.

The organization stated that the campaign will target children under the age of five.

The organization, however, has not specified how long the campaign will run for.

The last polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan was launched on April 30 of this year, during which about 10 million children under five were vaccinated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported two positive cases of polio in Kunar and Nuristan provinces this year.