Qatar and Turkey to help Afghanistan resume work at Kabul airport

Turkey is cooperating with Qatar on offering humanitarian assistance and on ensuring Kabul’s airport remains open, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu said, speaking at a joint news conference with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha ahead of the seventh meeting of the Turkey-Qatar Supreme Strategic Committee.

Cavusoglu said Turkey was seeking to work for “peace and stability” in Afghanistan as he urged the international community to engage in dialogue with the Taliban movement (banned in Russia) and called on them to “differentiate” between the political and humanitarian side of things.

“This is what we have done as Afghans are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance,” Al Jazeera cited him as saying.

After the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, technical teams from Turkey and Qatar started working on getting the Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport back to operational standards. Turkey offered technical and security assistance at the airport. Keeping the airport open after foreign forces handed over control is vital not just for Afghanistan to stay connected to the world but to maintain aid supplies and operations. Turkey has been working with Qatar to reopen the airport in the Afghan capital Kabul for international travel. However, repairs are needed before commercial flights can resume.