China has delivered its first consignment containing blankets and jackets worth 31 million USD to the Taliban’s interim government in Afghanistan on Wednesday.

State-run Xinhua news agency reported from the Afghan capital and said that the China-donated supplies, which arrived at the Kabul International Airport, have been handed over to the Afghanistan side.

China’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu and Acting Minister of Refugee Affairs of the Afghan caretaker government Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani attended the handover ceremony at the airport.

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Wang said that amidst many difficulties, China has managed to arrange the emergency humanitarian aid materials for Afghanistan in a short time, which included blankets, down jackets and other winter supplies urgently needed by the Afghan people.

He said China will continue to prepare for other materials, including food aid, which are expected to arrive before long. Haqqani thanked China for providing the emergency supplies.

Terming China as a “good neighbour and friend of Afghanistan”, Haqqani hoped China could provide further assistance in the future, the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN-TV) reported.

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Afghanistan, which faces extremely grave economic and livelihood difficulties, urgently needs assistance from the international community in various fields, he said.

Haqqani said that Afghanistan will honour its commitments to its neighbours and the international community, in an apparent reference to the Taliban’s pledge to form an inclusive government and not to allow foreign militant groups to operate from the Afghanistan territory.

Like the rest of the world, China is yet to officially recognise the Taliban’s interim government. However, it has kept its embassy in Kabul open along with Pakistan and Russia while the missions of other countries were shut after the Afghan militant group took control of the war-torn country last month.

The Taliban swept across Afghanistan last month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the US forces that began on May 1. On August 15, the capital city of Kabul fell to the insurgents.

The Taliban claimed victory over opposition forces in the last holdout province of Panjshir on September 6, completing their takeover of Afghanistan three weeks after capturing Kabul.