A Taliban delegation will travel to Norway to hold talks with the Norwegian government, meet representatives of the Norwegian authorities and several allied countries, as well as civil society activists and Afghan human rights defenders. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had invited Taliban representatives to Oslo from Jan. 23-25. The statement did not specify which other countries would attend the meeting.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said “we are extremely concerned about the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan”. She said there was “a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe for millions of people” in the country.

She stressed that the meeting was “not a legitimization or recognition of the Taliban. But we need to talk to those who, in practice, run the country today.” “We cannot let the political situation lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster,” she said.

The Foreign Ministry said the Taliban delegation meetings will also include Afghans from “various fields and women leaders, journalists and people who work on human rights and humanitarian issues, among others. , economic, social and political. He said earlier this week a Norwegian delegation visited Kabul for talks on the precarious humanitarian situation in the country.

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