Delegation states Taliban pursues ‘dignified’ international engagement as it constructs ‘strong’ and ‘developed’ Afghanistan. A delegation of the Taliban appoints student as Afghan envoy in Mumbai has arrived in Japan on what is the first visit by the group that controls Afghanistan, the East Asian country’s media reported.
The Afghan delegation, comprised of foreign affairs, education, economy and health officials, travelled in on Sunday for a seven-day visit, according to a report by Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The visit represents a first for the Taliban as their diplomatic trips have hitherto stayed very close to home following their 2021 power grab.
Taliban envoys will look to attain humanitarian assistance as well as the possibility of holding talks on diplomatic relations with Japanese officials. Latif Nazari, a deputy economy minister at the Taliban, characterized the visit as part of the movement’s quest to be an “active member of the international community”.
“We want respectful interaction with the world for a strong, united, advanced, prosperous, developed Afghanistan and to be an active member of the international community,” Nazari, who is in the delegation, said in a post on X on Saturday.
Quoting Afghan diplomatic sources, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported the Taliban delegates would “exchange opinions with Japanese government officials”. As the Taliban regime makes frequent stops in neighbouring and regional nations such as Central Asia, Russia, and China, it hardly visits outside the continent. It officially visited Europe on only two occasions for diplomacy summits in Norway in 2022 and 2023.
Japan’s embassy in Kabul temporarily shifted to Qatar following the collapse of the last foreign-backed regime and the Taliban’s takeover in 2021. However, it has since re-opened and resumed diplomatic and humanitarian work within the nation.
The Taliban visit to Japan follows just days after ISIL (ISIS) took responsibility for a fatal suicide bombing near the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing in Kabul, the most recent in a string of attacks by the group. Japan’s embassy criticized the attack, tweeting on X on Sunday that “these attacks of terror must cease immediately”.
