The United States and Qatar have agreed that Qatar will represent the diplomatic interests of the United States in Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced, an important signal of potential direct engagement between Washington and Kabul in the future after two decades of war, Reuters reported.

Qatar signed an arrangement on Friday assuming the role of “protecting power” for U.S. interests to help facilitate any formal communication between Washington and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) government in Afghanistan, which the United States does not recognize.

The move comes at a time when the United States and other Western countries are grappling with how to engage with the IEA after they took over Afghanistan in a lightning advance in August as U.S.-led forces were withdrawing after two decades of war.

According to the arrangement, which will come into effect on December 31, Qatar will dedicate certain staff from its embassy in Afghanistan to a U.S. Interests Section and will coordinate closely with U.S. State Department and with the U.S. mission in Doha, Reuters reported

Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said his country’s first priority was to ensure that humanitarian aid arrived safely in the hands of the needy.

“The first priority to be addressed with the Taliban (IEA) is to provide safe access for humanitarian assistance and ensuring that goes to the right people and not falling into the wrong hands. The second thing, we believe that abandoning Afghanistan will be a big mistake, and ignoring it, because isolation has never been an answer or a solution for any issue. Engagement is the only way forward,” he said.