Pakistan offers to host OIC foreign ministers’ moot on Afghanistan

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday offered to host the extraordinary session of the Council of Foreign Minister of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened by Saudi Arabia, the OIC Summit chair, to discuss the latest situation in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan fully endorses this initiative. We also offered to host this meeting in Islamabad on the 17th of December 2021. We are confident that the OIC member states will endorse this offer,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a video message.

He said Afghanistan was the founding member of the OIC and as part of the Islamic Ummah, “we are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood with the people of Afghanistan. Today, our Afghan brothers and sisters need us more than ever before,” he commented.

He said Afghanistan currently faced a serious humanitarian situation as millions of Afghans including women and children confronted with an uncertain future due to a shortage of food, medicine, and other essential living supplies.

The advent of winter has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, he added.

The foreign minister urged the OIC to step up to alleviate the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, provide immediate and sustained support to them, and continue to remain engaged with them for the wellbeing and prosperity of Afghanistan.

He said the first Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Islamabad, in January 1980, on the situation in Afghanistan.

“Next month we will once again gather in Islamabad to reaffirm our abiding solidarity with and support to the Afghan people. I am confident that the meeting would consider concrete steps to help address the humanitarian and economic challenges facing Afghanistan,” he hoped.

The foreign minister said that he looked forward to welcoming the OIC foreign minister for the session in Islamabad.