US Secretary of State signs MoU with Afghan Evac Coalition

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Afghan Evac Coalition to facilitate evacuation of Afghans who worked with the Americans during their military presence in Afghanistan.

Blinken, speaking at the signing ceremony, said that the United States is determined to relocate and resettle its Afghan partners.

“When President Biden brought an end to America’s longest conflict, he made a commitment that the United States would continue to relocate and resettle our Afghan partners. We are determined – I am determined – to fulfill that pledge, just as this group is,” Blinken said.

Afghan Evac is a coalition of more than 200 organizations working alongside the US Government to support Afghan relocation efforts.

“We’ve relocated more than 24,000 Afghans to the United States and third countries since September 2021. Overall, we have relocated more than 97,000 Afghans to the United States,” Blinken said.

“The Memorandum of Understanding that we will shortly sign will allow us to keep sharing information with one another, to coordinate our outreach to additional civil society partners, to guide our ongoing efforts to find more, and better, ways to serve our Afghan partners – both those already here, and those yet to come – and keep pace with their evolving needs,” Blinken said.

This comes as foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, recently said that countries should not evacuate Afghan cadres and professionals under the excuse of threat to their lives.