Afghanistan is “at the brink of economic collapse” and the international community must urgently resume funding and provide humanitarian assistance, Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a meeting yesterday with US, Chinese, Russian and Taliban diplomats in Islamabad.
Qureshi spoke at the opening of the so-called “troika plus” meeting, which included new US special envoy to Afghanistan Thomas West.
The delegates were also expected to meet later yesterday with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
“Today, Afghanistan stands at the brink of an economic collapse,” Qureshi said in remarks opening the meeting, adding that any further downward slide would “severely limit” the new Taliban government’s ability to run the country.
“It is, therefore, imperative for the international community to buttress provision of humanitarian assistance on an urgent basis,” he said.
That included enabling Afghanistan to access funds frozen by Western donors since the Taliban took control of the country in August, he said.
Resuming the flow of funding “will dovetail into our efforts to regenerate economic activities and move the Afghan economy towards stability and sustainability,” Qureshi said.
Doing so would also benefit Western countries, he said later in comments to state media.
“If you think that you are far, Europe is safe and those areas you imagine will not be affected by terrorism, don’t forget the history,” he said. “We have learned from the history and we don’t want to repeat those mistakes made in the past.”
The UN has repeatedly said that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than half the country facing “acute” food shortages and winter forcing millions to choose between migration and starvation.
The troika plus meeting represents West’s first trip to the region since taking over from Zalmay Khalilzad, the long-serving diplomat who spearheaded the talks that led to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this year.
The US Department of State earlier in the week said that West also plans to visit Russia and India.
“Together with our partners, he will continue to make clear the expectations that we have of the Taliban and of any future Afghanistan government,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price told a briefing this week.
West, who was in Brussels earlier this week to brief NATO on US engagements with the Taliban, told reporters there that the Islamists have “very clearly” voiced their desire to see aid resumed, as well as to normalize international relations and see sanctions relief.
He called for unity from allies on those issues, saying that Washington “can deliver none of these things on our own.”
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