China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi to meet Afghan Taliban leaders in Doha

Name: Taliban announces new Afghanistan government, giving top roles to hardliners and no women
Uploaded: 2021-10-25T14:36:30.000Z
Duration: 2 min 9 s
Description: Taliban announces new Afghanistan government, giving top roles to hardliners and no women

Talks to mark the first high-level engagement since the militant group took power in Kabul following the withdrawal of US troops

Wang will then embark on a two-day trip to four European nations: Greece, Serbia, Albania and Italy

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Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of a Taliban delegation, arrives for talks with foreign diplomats in Qatar’s capital Doha on October 12. Photo: AFP

Catherine Wong

Published: 10:36pm, 25 Oct 2021Updated: 11:38pm, 25 Oct 2021

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold talks with a delegation of the interim Afghan Taliban government during his visit to Qatar this week, in the first high-level engagement since the militant group took power in Kabul two months ago.

Wang, who will be in Doha on Monday and Tuesday, will raise “the situation in Afghanistan and issues of mutual concern” during the meeting, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

This will be the first high-level engagement between China and the Taliban since the militant outfit unseated the US-backed government in August and declared the establishment of a new regime in Afghanistan following the US troop withdrawal.

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Taliban announces new Afghanistan government, giving top roles to hardliners and no women

“[The] Afghan people, facing many difficulties and challenges, are in dire need of external support,” the ministry spokesman said.

“As a long-time friendly neighbour and partner of Afghanistan, China has advocated the use of dialogue and engagement in guiding the situation in Afghanistan towards positive development, and to help the Afghan people overcome difficulties.”

China was among the first countries to establish contact with the Taliban after its forces swept through Afghanistan. In July, two weeks before the takeover of Kabul, Wang was in Tianjin to meet a delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a top Taliban leader and now the deputy prime minister in the new Afghan government.

China announced in September that it would donate 200 million yuan (US$31 million) worth of aid, including food and coronavirus vaccines, to Afghanistan.