Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, will meet their counterparts from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in Samarkand on Thursday to discuss issues facing Afghanistan.
As in previous rounds of talks, no representative from the Taliban will be present at the meeting as most countries of the world have not officially recognized the group as the lawful government of Afghanistan.
The Taliban have demanded that they be included in the talks.
Afghanistan’s neighbors and Russia last convened in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, in March, where they pledged to meet regularly to discuss the economic and humanitarian situation in the country.
They called for a US freeze on Afghan central bank assets to be lifted. Washington froze some $7 billion in Afghan assets after the Taliban swept back to power in August 2021 following a disastrous withdrawal by the United States.
Iran hosted the second round of talks in October 2021, and the third conference was hosted by China.
**2050
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