On February 18 and 19, Qatar hosted the second meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, which was attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and participants from countries including India, Canada, China, France, and Germany.Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US also participated in the meeting.Thanking Qatar for hosting the meeting, Kamboj said, “India participated actively in this meeting.”She noted that there were “constructive discussions” on the recommendations of the report by Special Coordinator Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu, including the appointment of a Special Envoy of the Secretary-General and the establishment of an international contact group for Afghanistan.”There was a general consensus that the international community has to move forward on these issues in a consultative and transparent manner,” Kamboj said.Among the organisations attending the meeting were the European Union, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.Guterres, who had described the Doha meeting as “extremely productive,” had spoken to reporters about the “total consensus” about the programmatic proposals included in Sinirlioglu’s independent review that covered all the main areas of concern of both the international community and the Taliban, the de facto authorities of Afghanistan. These included the need to ensure that Afghanistan does not become the “hotbed of terrorist activities that impact other countries,” Guterres had said.He pointed out that among the recommendations of the review was the creation of a contact group.
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