ISLAMABAD, 27 November 2021, (TON): Pakistan hailed US representatives’ upcoming meeting with the Taliban officials as a “welcome development” that would help address challenges faced by the war-torn country.

At the weekly media briefing, Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar said “it would be a welcome development.”

Recalling Pakistan’s consistent advocacy for the world’s engagement with the Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in August after the fall of the Ghani government, Mr Iftikhar said “we have been saying, encouraging and advocating enhanced engagement of the international community with Afghanistan to help address its challenges.”

The US and Taliban officials are meeting in Doha next week.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West and Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi will lead their respective sides at the talks that would continue for two days.

It would be the second meeting between the two sides since completion of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. The two sides last met in Doha in October.

Spokesman for the Taliban foreign ministry Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said that Muttaqi’s delegation for the talks would include representatives of the education, health, finance, security and banking sectors of Afghanistan.