OIC’s special envoy for Afghanistan visits Japan

Special envoy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Afghanistan, Tariq Ali Bakheet, visited Japan this week for talks on humanitarian assistance and development projects in Afghanistan.

Bakheet held extensive discussions with top-level officials from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs including Kansuke Nagaoka, the Director-General of the Middle East, and Special Envoy of Japan to Afghanistan, OIC said in a statement.

“The exchange dwelt principally on the committed engagement that has long been sustained by the OIC with Afghan de facto authorities in a bid to foster humanitarian assistance to Afghan vulnerable communities and seek agreeable ways of resolving some contentious political and human rights issues that still arouse the concerns of the OIC and the broader international community,” the statement said.

Bakheet and the coordinator of the OIC Afghanistan Humanitarian Trust Fund (AHTF), Jamal Al-Saati, who was accompanying him, also held productive talks with the representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for Afghanistan and the heads of four other Japanese NGOs.

“At the core of the discussions was the development of a practicable roadmap that would help streamline the implementation of joint OIC-Japan assistance and economic development projects in Afghanistan,” the statement read.

According to the statement, they also took part in a brainstorming symposium during which constructive insights were shared about the possible mechanisms likely to structure a trilateral cooperation framework involving the OIC, the UN, and Japan in support of Afghanistan.