Foreign ministers from several countries will meet virtually Monday to discuss their next steps in Afghanistan, the U.S. State Department said, as the airlift evacuation out of the country enters its final days.
The United States will host the meeting of "key partners," the State Department said Sunday, with the summit coming one day before U.S. military forces are to withdraw from Afghanistan after 20 years of war and slightly more than two weeks after the Taliban swept back into power.
Representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Qatar, the European Union and NATO are set to participate, the State Department said.
"The participants will discuss an aligned approach for the days and weeks ahead," the statement said.
The statement also said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would speak after the meeting to give an update on the United States' recent efforts in Afghanistan.
The meeting will come one day after the United States said it destroyed an explosive-laden vehicle with an airstrike in Kabul and two days after President Joe Biden warned of another terror attack in the capital following a suicide bombing on Thursday.
The Thursday attack killed more than 100 people, including 13 US service personnel.
Members of an Islamic State affiliate are believed to be behind the targeting of an area outside the Kabul airport, where the United States has been processing visas of Afghans, Americans and other foreign nationals seeking to leave the country in the weeks since the Taliban took control.
About 120,00 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 15.
