A delegation of six members of the Afghan government, at the UN-hosted Doha III meeting in Qatar, held a valuable side-meeting yesterday, on building the critical 700 km Trans-Afghan Railway. Also discussed in Doha yesterday was that Afghan farmers who no longer grow opium poppy and need backing to grow wheat and other crops, must have international support. Afghanistan’s TOLONews reported on June 30 that the Agriculture Ministry estimates the 2024 Afghan wheat crop to be up by 15-20% over 2023, in part thanks to a 6% increase in cultivated area switched over from the suppression of opium poppy growing, which was done also during the 2022-2023 crop year.
The June 30-July 1 Doha III meeting gave the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan delegation a format to meet with representatives of some 30 nations, multilateral banks, the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, and others, on matters including anti-narcotics efforts, the economy, the private sector, and governance.
In this setting, Pakistan’s Special Representative to Afghanistan Asif Durrani reported yesterday on X: “On the sidelines of Doha-III, a quadrilateral meeting between Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Qatar reviewed the Trans-Afghan Railway project to connect Uzbekistan and Pakistan via Afghanistan. The project will effectively connect South & Central Asia.”
