The Russian news agency TASS reported that following the meeting, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian Foreign Minister, revealed that the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan held a meeting on Afghanistan.
The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan held four-way talks on 13 April in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, on the sidelines of the fourth regional meeting of Afghanistan’s neighbors – where various issues and concerns regarding Afghanistan were discussed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein-Amir Abdollahian, and Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Rabbani Khar were photographed together before proceeding with the closed-door meeting, Russian news agency TASS reported.
Following the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian said that he and the other diplomats discussed a wide range of issues regarding Afghanistan – including a recent surge in extremist activity, problems caused by US sanctions, the poor living conditions of the Afghan people, and the flow of Afghan refugees into Iran and other countries.
The Iranian foreign minister stressed the importance of countering drug trafficking originating in the country, and the Taliban government’s responsibility in that area.
During the first meeting of the India-Central Asia joint working group on Afghanistan, India announced that it would send 20,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via the Iran port.