US State Department Asks Its Citizens Not to Visit Afghanistan Due to Terrorism

TASS news agency reported that on the sidelines of the meeting, joint exercises had been held to prevent cyber-attacks by terrorist groups.

According to TASS, cyber terrorism is one of the major concerns of intelligence officials of the CSO member countries.

The purpose of this gathering in Delhi is to enhance interaction and cooperation in addressing cyberattacks by terrorist groups on the information infrastructure.

The use of digital currencies to finance terrorist activities in the region was one of the other topics discussed in the meeting.

India currently holds the rotating presidency of the SCO. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on member states for more efforts in the fight against terrorism.

China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan are members of the SCO. They have repeatedly expressed concern about the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan in the past two years.

Roza Otunbayeva, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy, will address the meeting on the situation in Afghanistan.

On X social media platform, UNAMA wrote that the meeting is scheduled to be held on Wednesday evening at 19:30 Kabul time.

The organisation has not provided further details about the meeting.

Recently, the UN held a closed-door meeting with Afghan women activists, which sparked reactions.

In recent days, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres presented his quarterly report on Afghanistan to the Security Council.

The meeting of the UN Security Council is being held while UNAMA recently published a report titled "Handling Complaints of Gender-Based Violence Against Women and Girls", expressing concerns about the increase in violence against women following the Taliban’s takeover of power.

Earlier, in a report to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres called for the appointment of a special representative for Afghanistan.

During the meeting with Dickson, Muttaqi acknowledged "many positive aspects" in the UN coordinator's report for Afghanistan. However, he expressed that appointing a new representative for Afghanistan is "not appropriate" given the current situation.

Last month, following the assessment of the UN Coordinator, Guterres recommended to the Security Council, the appointment of a new representative to enhance interaction between international and Afghan stakeholders, fostering better coordination.

According to him, the mission of the new United Nations representative should prioritise the advancement of intra-Afghan dialogues.

However, the Taliban's foreign minister has rejected the suggestion.

In the meeting with Dickson, Muttaqi also said that currently, Afghanistan "is progressing and has good relations with its neighbours, the world and the region”. The Taliban foreign minister emphasised that "the doors for interaction are open to everyone and the current situation should be strengthened”.

On Tuesday, the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its statement quoted the Charge d’Affaires of the British embassy as expressing a desire for a stable and peaceful Afghanistan while rejecting the use of violence to achieve political goals.

Based on the Taliban's statement, Dickson added that the UK’s position on not supporting violent means to achieve political goals has been officially announced.

With the UN refusing to hand over the seat to the Taliban, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan’s previous government to the United Nations, remains in his position.

The UN General Assembly has approved the resolution not to handover Afghanistan’s seat to the representative of the Taliban without voting.

In addition to Afghanistan, the UN Credentials Committee has postponed the review of Myanmar's credentials to a later date.

The UN has said that it has received two correspondences regarding Afghanistan's seat, one from the permanent representative of the former Afghan government and the other from the Taliban's foreign ministry.

The UN had rejected the transfer of Afghanistan's seat to the Taliban on two prior occasions.

Currently, Faiq, who was appointed by the former Afghan government, is the permanent representative of Afghanistan at the United Nations.

The discussion focused on initiating the practical aspects of this mining project.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, released a statement on Monday detailing the talks between Muttaqi and Xiaoyong. The dialogue centered around recent progress in Afghanistan-China bilateral relations.

Yue Xiaoyong assured that China respects Afghanistan’s sovereignty and will not meddle in its internal matters. The Chinese envoy emphasized collaboration between the two nations to initiate the mining project.

The meeting also addressed the potential for expanding Afghanistan's export sectors to China. Muttaqi highlighted the need for exploring opportunities that would enhance trade between the two countries.

Balkhi mentioned that China has considerably reduced customs duties on Afghan imports, a move aimed at strengthening bilateral trade.

The Taliban Foreign Ministry’s statement affirmed the group’s readiness to begin work on the Aynak copper mine. The Taliban leadership has repeatedly requested Chinese authorities to expedite the start of the project.

Located in Logar province, the Aynak copper mine is not only Afghanistan's largest copper mine but also ranks as the world's second-largest. In 2008, Afghanistan and the Chinese company MCC signed the mining contract, granting MCC a 30-year extraction license.

Over the past two years, the Taliban has significantly increased mining activities across Afghanistan, awarding extraction rights for various large and small mines to both local and foreign entities, predominantly Chinese firms.

This mining initiative comes as the Taliban confronts financial challenges, seeking to boost revenue through resource extraction. However, many mining experts have criticized these efforts, labelling them as exploitative depletion of Afghanistan's natural resources.