Afghan passengers board a Qatar Airways plane at Kabul International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on September 19, 2021.
Doha: After swift takeover of Kabul by the Taliban in August 2021, Qatar played crucial role in evacuation of thousands of foreigners and Afghan nationals from Afghanistan.
August 15, 2021, represents a significant day not only in the history of Afghanistan, but also in the entire region. When the departure of former President Ashraf Ghani was announced, and Taliban took power and a crisis of evacuating Westerners and Afghans emerged, attention turned from Kabul to Doha.
Qatar was an acceptable and neutral mediator and hosted the talks between the US and the Taliban, as well as the intra-Afghan talks, to find coordination for power-sharing or a peaceful transition to include everyone.
Following the emergence of the evacuation crisis at Kabul Airport, Qatar coordinated the evacuations from Afghanistan with the US, where more than 120,000 people were evacuated. Qatar evacuated more than 60,000 people.
Doha was the centre of the world’s attention during that crisis, either through visits by Western ministers and officials to Doha, especially the US, or through phone calls praising Doha’s role and its efforts to evacuate Afghan nationals and their families.
At the international level, the annual strategic dialogue between Qatar and the US in its fourth session in Washington was another milestone in the strong historical partnership between.
The Qatar-US economic partnership exceeds $200bn in the fields of trade and investment. Qatar has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in the US economy. Qatar and the US are also linked in a partnership in the fields of defence, security, investments, education, energy, and combating terrorism.
Qatari-French relations witnessed a new boost when H H the Amir received H E President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Doha from December 3 to 4, 2021.
Before the end of 2021, the meeting of the seventh meeting of the Qatari-Turkish Joint High Strategic Committee was held, chaired by H H the Amir and H E President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The two sides signed agreements and memoranda of understanding in various fields.
