Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting Qatar these days, where he will meet various representatives of the Taliban. This was announced by his department in a note from spokesman Wang Wenbin.
The visit takes place at the invitation of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. In Doha Wang will meet representatives of the Quranic students in government in Afghanistan. This is the second meeting in three months between Wang and the exponents of the Taliban, after the first face to face, in Tianjin, with a small delegation, when they had not yet settled in Kabul. On that occasion, the Taliban were led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, now Deputy Prime Minister of the country.
The two sides will exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan and on issues of “common interest”, said the spokesman for the foreign ministry. “As Afghanistan’s traditional neighbor and friendly partner, China has always supported dialogue and contact to drive the positive development of the situation in Afghanistan,” he said. China has promised aid to the neighboring country, while continuing to ask the Taliban to crack down on the Islamic movement in East Turkestan, a group that Beijing says threatens stability in western Xinjiang.
The European Union, on the other hand, intends to reopen its diplomatic representation in Kabul within a month. The Financial Times writes, citing sources familiar with the plan, which awaits a safety assessment before becoming final. The EU embassy in the Afghan capital is supposed to house EU officials, but it could also be used by diplomats from other member states.