Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with the special representatives to Afghanistan from China and Pakistan, Yue Xiaoyong and Asif Durrani respectively, on the sidelines of the Moscow format meeting.

The Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal said on X that during the meeting, national relations, common interests, and threats to Afghanistan, Pakistan and China were discussed in detail.

Muttaqi told Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan that if problems arise, instead of media statements, efforts should be made to solve them through diplomatic means.

Takal added that during the meeting the Chinese side pledged that it is ready to increase its assistance to Afghanistan in a number of areas.

The Afghanistan Food and Drug Authority’s (AFDA) acting head Abdulbari Omar visited the IranPharma international exhibition this weekend while on a trip to Tehran.

IranPharma, the annual international exhibition on pharmaceuticals and related industries, is the biggest pharmaceutical event in the MENA region.

Organized by the Iranian Pharmaceutical Industries Syndicate, in collaboration with Iran’s Ministry of Health, and other associations, each edition aims to expand contributions and innovative collaborations in the pharmaceutical sector, and elevate the opportunities of investing in pharmaceutical technologies.

AFDA said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Omar met with the heads of Iranian pharmaceutical companies along with representatives from other countries and informed them of the new regulations in place regarding the registration of pharmaceuticals, health products, and food that’s imported into Afghanistan.

He also explained that the regulations have been implemented in order to regulate the quality of goods sold on the local market.

According to AFDA, foreign representatives of manufacturing companies expressed their satisfaction with the implementation of the new procedure and expressed interest in registering their products for the Afghanistan market.

Officials involved in the New Kabul project say practical work on this national project is underway, and will likely be completed within six months.

They said the project plan, which includes construction of roads, intersections, subways, infrastructure, commercial buildings, and housing, has been finalized and construction work has started.

“With the company that we have a contract with, it will take six months from today to complete this project,” said Sayed Moqadam Amin, head of the implementing company of the New Kabul project.

He said once the project has been completed, 2,000 people including workers, employees and investors, will work in the newly developed area.

According to him, part of the work of this project is related to government institutions, such as the creation of sewerage, telecommunication and internet services, but government departments have not yet started work.

“Simultaneously, the government needs to start its work on the sewerage system, public roads, water and electricity in the general area of this project,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MUDH) says it has provided the necessary facilities for the construction of this project and it wants to establish more coordination between the relevant departments.

Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesperson for MUDH, said that the officials of the ministry visit this project regularly to assess progress.

A number of those who work on this project say the government should expand the work of this project in order to provide job opportunities to unemployed people.

The New Kabul project is set to be built in two stages, and in the first stage, 250,000 houses will be built for one million people.