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Muttaqi addresses China meeting on Afghanistan, calls for regional support
Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) told delegates attending a conference in China on Thursday that the government is working to make sure the political structure in Afghanistan is inclusive.
Addressing delegates attending the Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries Meeting in China, Muttaqi also said the cabinet has set up a ministerial-level commission to liaise with Afghan figures at home.
He stated that the new government of Afghanistan wants to ensure security is maintained and that no conflict takes place. He said a balanced economic policy also needs to be established.
On the issue of Daesh, Muttaqi said that the terrorist organization has largely been eliminated in Afghanistan.
“Unfortunately, Daesh is being propagated from outside and a media atmosphere is being created for it,” Muttaqi told the conference participants.
He did however call on countries in the region to support the new Afghan government and said: “Strengthening the new government was in everyone’s interest and its weakness was to the detriment of all.
“The Afghan government was committed to addressing all concerns,” he added.
“Afghanistan’s assets have been frozen and its political representation at the United Nations has been handed over to someone who neither represents the government nor can serve the people, and his political and economic rights have been usurped,” he said.
Muttaqi said that the Islamic Emirate is trying to address all the political, economic and social problems in a wise and careful manner.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who chaired the meeting, meanwhile expressed hope for progress and achievements in Afghanistan.
“There should be no threats to anyone in Afghanistan,” Wang said.
Wang welcomed Muttaqi’s remarks and praised Afghanistan’s position.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also addressed delegates and thanked Muttaqi for his remarks and stressed his support for Afghans.
“Western nations must play their part in Afghanistan,” stressing that the “previous regime’s representation at the UN could not represent Afghanistan and that it was taking advantage of the situation.”
He also referred to the introduction of new diplomats to the Afghan embassy in Russia.
All participants stressed the need to work with the new Afghan government.
Representatives of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan stressed the importance of implementing major economic projects with Afghanistan and the importance of transit corridors through Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also said that the question of recognizing the new Afghan government should be settled with the consent of all countries in the region.
The Foreign Ministers of Indonesia and Qatar, in turn, called for and promised more cooperation with Afghanistan.
At the end of the meeting, Wang stated the meeting had been a positive move and thanked Muttaqi for his explanations.
Wang said the next meeting will be held in Uzbekistan and that once again the Afghan Foreign Minister will attend.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Islamic Emirate’s Foreign Minister, met with Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh, Iran’s Minister of Agriculture Jihad, in Kabul on Thursday.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said the two sides held comprehensive discussions on bilateral relations, expanding economic and transit cooperation, and holding the seventh meeting of the Joint Economic Commission between the two countries.
Muttaqi welcomed the progress in practical economic and transit cooperation between Afghanistan and Iran, saying there are further opportunities to expand bilateral ties.
Iran’s agriculture minister also stressed the importance of making use of existing opportunities for cooperation in various sectors and called for expanding current areas of cooperation.
Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) has unveiled a new visa card and HesabPay mobile application as part of efforts to expand digital financial services in Afghanistan.
The new products were introduced at an event in Kabul on Thursday, where Ahmad Shahpoor Mia Khail, the bank’s deputy governor for supervision, urged Afghans to use digital cards for payments and cash withdrawals.
Mia Khail said improving public trust and providing better financial services remain among the bank’s priorities, describing the digitization of the financial system as a key step toward electronic transactions.
“Our sole objective is to enable every Afghan to make payments using a card, mobile phone or other means,” he said.
Officials from several companies said around one million active customers in Afghanistan currently use HesabPay services, adding that they are committed to expanding access to financial services.
Ahmad Khalid Wadan, the owner of one of the companies, said the initiative aims to help build “a strong, secure and reliable digital financial system” in Afghanistan.
Da Afghanistan Bank has repeatedly called for the digitization of monetary and commercial transactions, saying it can improve transparency and efficiency and help expand economic activity.
Human Rights Watch in a statement on Wednesday called for the release of two UN staffers and six NGO workers in Afghanistan.
HRW said that six male staff working with the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF) had been “forcibly disappeared” from the NGO’s Kabul office last month. The NGO has been involved in aid programmes and advocacy on women’s and children’s rights, HRW said.
In a separate incident, Human Rights Watch also called for the release of two Afghan staff members of the UN’s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who were detained by IEA officials in the western city of Herat on Sunday.
The IEA’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters that he was “trying to gather details” about the recent detentions, but had “not received final clarity.”
The UN confirmed the detention of two of its staffers earlier this week. “UNAMA has not been informed of the charges against them and has not been permitted to visit them,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said in a briefing on Wednesday.
Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the detentions of UNAMA staff threatened the UN’s “ability to deliver lifesaving aid.”
As the UN’s political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA is involved in human rights monitoring and data gathering. Its reports have frequently been criticised by the IEA government in the past.
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