ISLAMABAD. — As international donors gather in Geneva on Monday to discuss humanitarian relief for Afghanistan under Taliban rule, neighbors China and Pakistan have already reached out with aid and discussions of future assistance.
The economy in the war-torn country is in crisis and a humanitarian crisis is looming, experts say.
Yet the United States and other Western nations are reluctant to provide the Taliban with funds until the Islamist militant movement provides assurances that it will uphold human rights, and in particular the rights of women.
The country’s roughly $10 billion in foreign assets, held overseas, are also frozen.
“The understandable purpose is to deny these funds to the de facto Taliban administration,” Deborah Lyons, the UN Secretary General’s special representative for Afghanistan, told the UN Security Council this week.
“The inevitable effect, however, will be a severe economic downturn that could throw many more millions into poverty and hunger, may generate a massive wave of refugees from Afghanistan, and indeed set Afghanistan back for generations.”
Another possible effect could be to drive Afghanistan closer to its neighbors and close allies Pakistan and China, who have already sent planeloads of supplies to Afghanistan. They have also signaled they are open to ramped-up engagement.
China announced last week it would send $31 million worth of food and health supplies to Afghanistan, among the first foreign aid pledges since the Taliban took power last month.
Pakistan last week sent supplies such as cooking oil and medicine to authorities in Kabul, while the country’s foreign minister called on the international community to provide assistance without conditions and to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets. — Reuters
