By Rahul Kumar

New Delhi, Jul 27: The Taliban government heading the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, which is still struggling for international recognition, got a boost after Russia decided to cancel duties on Afghan imports and also resume supply of oil and grain to the country.

News agency UNI reports that Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan, announced this at the 'Afghanistan: Security and Economic Development' organised by Uzbekistan to discuss the security and humanitarian situation in its conflict-ridden neighbour. Nearly 20 countries including India attended the two-day conference.

UNI reported that Russia said that as humanitarian aid was not enough to support Afghanistan, it was ready to develop economic relations and trade with Afghanistan.

The Taliban delegation led by acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi got the support it was looking for as Uzbekistan gave a call for unfreezing Afghanistan's blocked foreign reserves.

Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported that Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov also appealed for unblocking Afghanistan's foreign reserves which would enable the country to restart its economy.

Appealing to the Taliban delegation to heed calls for the formation of an inclusive government, Pajhwok quoted the minister as saying: "Afghanistan should no longer pose a threat to the region's countries and to the international community as a whole."

Participating countries at the conference, which include Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights Rina Amiri, seek an assurance from the Taliban that the Afghan soil will not be used by terror groups against its neighbours. They are also keen that the Taliban government include minorities and women in the government to make it more inclusive.

India was represented by JP Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

Last month, India deployed a "technical team" at its embassy in Kabul after having withdrawn its officials in August 2021 after the takeover by the Taliban. New Delhi, however, held several meetings with the Taliban starting with Qatar talks as far back as August 2021 itself. India has been sending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in the form of food and medical supplies.

India also delivered emergency relief to the country in the wake of the June earthquake that killed over 1,000 people.

The Tashkent conference took place even as a social media campaign "Ban Taliban" raged on Twitter the past three days. The hashtag "BanTaliban" was the top trend on Twitter in Afghanistan along with Pakistan, India, the US and many other countries. The campaign followed Meta, earlier called Facebook, banning Taliban-related content on its platform which prompted Afghans to launch the "Ban Taliban" campaign on Twitter.

The Taliban will complete one year of the takeover of Afghanistan after it toppled the Ashraf Ghani government on August 15, 2021. Since then, the Taliban has banned girls from education and have cracked down on former soldiers and minorities, igniting fears in the neighbourhood that the country may once again see a spill over of terror into the region.

Uzbekistan will be hosting a series of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meetings in the coming months, beginning with the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting which will be followed by the interior and defence ministers' meetings. As the Chair of the grouping, it will also host the SCO Leaders' Summit later this year.