Twelve nations, including India, China, and the US, along with representatives of the UN and EU, have decided that they will not recognise any government in Afghanistan that seeks to “take control through the barrel of a gun”, the State Department has said, amid the continued Taliban offensive across the war-torn country.

Representatives from India, the United States, Qatar, the UN, China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the UK, the EU, Germany, Norway, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan joined a regional conclave on Thursday to discuss ways to contain the escalating security situation in Afghanistan. The conclave was hosted by Qatar.

The participants “agreed, first and foremost, that the peace process needs to be accelerated. And they also agreed, importantly, that they will not recognise any government that is imposed through military force,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Thursday. His remarks came as the Taliban advanced across Afghanistan and took control over key provincial capitals.

Reports say that the militant group has captured Herat and Kandahar, the country's second and third largest cities after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital on Thursday. It comes just weeks before the end of the American military mission in Afghanistan.

JP Singh, the joint secretary in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division in the Ministry of External Affairs, represented India at the meeting in Doha, officials said in New Delhi.