(Islamabad) Pakistan is on the brink of economic collapse and the international community must renew its financial and humanitarian aid, Pakistan’s foreign minister warned in an interview with US, Chinese and Russian ambassadors in Islamabad on Thursday.
“Afghanistan is on the brink of economic collapse today,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced at the start of the “Troika Plus” meeting, which will be attended by Thomas, the new US ambassador to Afghanistan.
Diplomats are scheduled to meet with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki on Thursday.
Qureshi continued that if the situation worsened, the new Taliban regime’s ability to rule the country would be “severely limited.” Therefore, it is imperative that the international community urgently support the resumption of humanitarian assistance.
He said this included providing funds to Afghanistan that had been blocked by Western donors since the Taliban seized the country in August.
This support “will help our efforts to revive economic activity and make the Afghan economy more stable and sustainable,” he said.
He assured that these measures would also benefit Western countries. “If you think you are far away and Europe is safe and these areas are not affected by terrorism, don’t forget history,” he said. “We learned from the past that we do not want to make the same mistakes again.”
The Taliban government has not yet been recognized by the international community and the already dangerous economy is collapsing, with Afghanistan, the national currency, being strongly devalued.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have stopped their aid.
The United Nations has warned in recent weeks that Afghanistan is on the brink of a severe humanitarian crisis, with half of its population at risk of starvation.
After replacing Salme Khalilzad, who served during the US retreat that prompted the Taliban to return to power in August, Mr. This was West’s first trip.
West, who discussed Afghanistan with NATO officials in Brussels this week, said the Taliban had come out “very clearly” to withdraw international aid to their country, normalize their relations with foreign countries and lift international sanctions against them. .
The diplomat noted that Washington could not act alone and called on other states concerned to stand together in the face of the crisis.
