Germany’s Maas in Uzbekistan for Afghan evacuation talks

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has arrived in the Uzbek capital Tashkent as part of a trip to three of Afghanistan’s neighbour countries for talks on continued evacuation efforts.

Maas will hold talks in Tashkent on Monday before travelling to Tajikistan for talks in Dushanbe in the afternoon.

On Tuesday he will have meetings in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

The three countries share land borders with Afghanistan and were expected to be among the main first destinations for people fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

Germany planned to take in 40,000 people, including former Afghan employees of the German military or government ministries and those in particular need of protection, such as human rights and women’s rights activists and their families.

Germany flew more than 5,300 people out of Afghanistan before ending its evacuation mission out of Kabul airport on Thursday.

Maas had promised the three neighbour nations economic and humanitarian assistance prior to his trip.

“It is in our own interest to prevent the collapse of Afghanistan from destabilising the entire region,’’ he said.

On Sunday Maas visited Turkey, which was playing a role in the reception of refugees.

He would also visit Qatar.

The country’s capital Doha was home to the political office of the radical Islamist Taliban, which effectively functions as the Foreign Ministry of the new rulers in Afghanistan and with which German negotiator Markus Potzel has been conducting talks on evacuation issues for days.