Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin arrived in the Uzbek city of Samarkand today to take part in the fourth ministerial meeting of Afghanistan’s neighboring states with the participation of Tajikistan and six other countries.
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia are attending the regional meeting today.
On the sidelines of the event, Muhriddin is scheduled to hold separate meetings with his participating counterparts.
IRNA reports that as in previous rounds of talks, no representative from the Taliban will be present at the meeting as most countries of the world have not officially recognized the group as the lawful government of Afghanistan.
The Taliban have reportedly demanded that they be included in the talks.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the meeting’s agenda includes discussion of the steps that the countries of the region need to take to facilitate the political settlement process in Afghanistan, and stabilize the humanitarian, social and economic situation.
The parties may also touch upon Moscow’s idea of creating a five-party G5 platform to resolve the Afghan issue, which would bring together Russia, China, India, Iran and Pakistan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that the meeting’s participants would pay special attention to regional economic integration and the implementation of transport and energy projects together with Kabul based on the previous agreements.
Meanwhile, IRNA reported on April13 that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Samarkand on the margins of a quadrilateral meeting of Iran, Russia, China and Pakistan on Afghanistan that measures to fight against drug smuggling and help prepare a proper space for girls and women to study in Afghanistan were among the important issues at the meeting.
He reportedly enumerated the spread of terrorism, rise in the number of refugees and crises created by the continuation of the US and the West sanctions as some issues in Afghanistan, which have caused concern.
Also, necessity of serious control of drug smuggling in the borders, particularly on borders with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and accountability of the caretaker government in Afghanistan for the issue were reviewed, the Iranian foreign minister added.
The News Services Division (NSD) of All India Radio reported on April 13 that the second quadrilateral meeting of Iran, Russia, China and Pakistan on Afghanistan has been held in Samarkand on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries. The first quadrilateral meeting was held on September 16, 2022, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Summit in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe.
