A Taliban delegation will hold talks with Western officials in Oslo next week on human rights and humanitarian aid in their first official visit to the West since returning to power, the Norwegian and Taliban governments have said.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said Friday that it has invited representatives of the Taliban to Oslo from January 23 to January 25.
Norwegian newspaper VG said special representatives from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the European Union were expected to take part. The ministry did not comment on the newspaper’s report.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the visit was “not a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban. But we must talk to those who in practice govern the country today.”
”We are extremely concerned about the serious situation in Afghanistan,” Huitfeldt said, noting that economic and political conditions have created “a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe for millions of people” facing starvation in the country.
The acting foreign minister in the Taliban government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will lead the Taliban delegation to Norway. The trip would be the first time since the Taliban took over the country in August that their representatives have held official meetings in Europe. They have previously travelled to Russia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, China and Turkmenistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan deputy culture and information minister, said Muttaqi expects to hold separate meetings with the US delegation and bilateral talks with European representatives.
The rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are likely to feature prominently in the talks, along with the West’s recurring demand for the Taliban administration to share power with Afghanistan’s minority ethnic and religious groups.
Source:Aljazeera
