Afghanistan’s neighbours have asked Taliban government to fulfil its commitments

Lahore: Afghanistan’s neighbors have asked the Taliban government to fulfill its commitments made with the international community.

In a joint statement the foreign ministers of Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Russia, asked Afghanistan to fulfill its promises. However, Afghanistan was not invited to the moot where the UN Secretary-General sent a video message.

The third round of the meeting would be held in China in 2022.

The foreign ministers asked the new Afghan rulers to ensure that Afghan territory would not pose any threats to the neighboring countries and would not be used by criminal, terrorist, or separatist groups. They also demanded the Afghan rulers cut ties with all terrorist groups and decisively eliminate them. The neighboring countries, they said, supported a durable and realistic settlement of differences through dialogue and negotiations among the relevant parties for achieving national reconciliation, lasting political solutions, and the formation of an inclusive government.

They also called on the relevant Afghan parties to take a friendly approach toward neighboring countries and respect universally-accepted principles of international law and fundamental human rights and protect the safety and legitimate rights of foreign nationals and institutions in Afghanistan. They all unanimously said that

the countries primarily responsible for the difficulties in Afghanistan should earnestly deliver on their commitment, and provide Afghanistan with urgently-needed economic, livelihood, and humanitarian assistance to help realize a stable transition of the situation in Afghanistan.

It also called on the relevant Afghan parties to implement modest and prudent internal and external policies, return to the normal order of the society as soon as possible, realize the effective operation of government agencies, provide basic public services to people, take actions to improve people’s livelihood and protect the fundamental rights of ethnic groups, women, and children in Afghanistan.

Some of the other issues that were of importance for the various Afghan parties related to confronting various threats and challenges, including terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking, a crackdown on organized crime and other criminal acts originating from Afghanistan, and taking into consideration the terrorism threats and counterterrorism effectiveness, discuss through bilateral or multilateral channels the possibility of restarting counter-terrorism cooperation with Afghanistan in due course.

The international community and donor countries were asked to provide continued, adequate, and proportionate financial support to the host countries of Afghan refugees, especially Iran and Pakistan and other neighboring countries of Afghanistan.

The international community, as well as the relevant Afghan parties, were asked to address the root causes of forced displacement in Afghanistan to avoid any destabilizing activity that would deteriorate the situation and cooperate for a permanent solution for the protracted situation of Afghan refugees.