United Nations Forms Second Doha Working Group

The United Nations has formed an economic working group based on the decision of the Doha meeting, which aims to coordinate economic aid to Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.

The first meeting of the economic group is scheduled to be held in Kabul on Tuesday, which is mainly at the level of ambassadors of regional countries and heads of Taliban ministries.

Representatives of 25 countries and 11 international organisations are members of the working group, which includes representatives of five ministries of the Taliban administration and four representatives of Afghanistan's commercial sector.

The meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, January 14.

Last month, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) held the first meeting of the Counter Narcotics Working Group.

These working groups were formed based on the decisions of the third meeting in Doha. UNAMA has previously said that this task force will provide the ground for coordinated interaction with the Taliban.

According to information provided to Afghanistan International, representatives of Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Navarre, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan are attending the second meeting of the Doha Working Group.

Representatives of the Taliban's Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Industry and Commerce, Economy and the Central Bank, are attending the meeting.

Eleven international organisations, including several UN agencies, are participating in the meeting.

The third Doha meeting was held in the presence of special representatives of countries for Afghanistan last year. At the time, the United Nations stated that the purpose of the meeting was to "increase international engagement with Afghanistan in a coherent and structured manner".

After the formation of these two working groups, the fourth meeting in Doha is scheduled to be held.