Taliban attends UN meeting for the first time in Doha, meets top Indian govt official
- The Taliban is for the first time participating in a United Nations (UN)-led meeting in Qatar’s Doha that started Sunday, sparking an outcry from women’s rights activists across the world.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- There was an “exchange of views on the development of relations between the two countries
- during which India supported the Taliban’s position in the Doha meeting and in turn, thanks were given for India’s assistance to Afghanistan, according to a statement issued by the Taliban government spokesperson
- The war-torn country’s economy and impact of Western sanctions featured prominently during the UN-led meeting on Afghanistan, where discussions also focused on the threat of drugs and other issues.
- Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid noted that the regime’s ban on poppy cultivation failed to garner any movement in terms of easing of sanctions by the international community.
- The Taliban continues to be economically crippled under the UN and Western countries, and all foreign reserves of Afghanistan’s central bank remain frozen.
- However, certain players in its neighbourhood like Kazakhstan have removed the Taliban from their list of prohibited groups.
- The Russian foreign ministry is reportedly considering the same. China, meanwhile, became the first country to officially recognise an ambassador appointed by the Taliban regime this February.
PRELIMS TAKEAWAY
- TALIBAN