TOKYO: Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said in a television program Sunday that the government will send a representative to the Qatari capital of Doha later this week.

To be dispatched is Tsukasa Uemura, the government’s representative for the Middle East.

As the political office of the Taliban, which has taken control of Afghanistan, is located in Doha, Uemura is expected to work to make arrangements for rescuing Afghan staff members of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Japanese Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

According to Motegi, Japanese Ambassador to Afghanistan Takashi Okada, who is now in Doha, met with the No. 2 official of the Taliban’s political office on Saturday and was told that food and medicines are most needed in Afghanistan.

The foreign minister said that a ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven key industrialized nations plus China and Russia is expected to be held on Wednesday Japan time. The G-7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union.

Japan’s Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi has ordered the Self-Defense Forces to end their mission to evacuate Japanese citizens and others from Afghanistan. The Japanese government found it difficult to continue the evacuation mission as safety is no longer guaranteed after the U.S. military, which had been managing the airport in Kabul, withdrew from the country.

JIJI Press