ISLAMABAD: Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang and acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will arrive on Friday (Apr 5) for bilateral talks as well as participate in the 5th China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue scheduled to be held on Saturday.
The Foreign Office Thursday said the acting Afghan Foreign Minister will arrive Friday on a four-day visit for holding bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as well as participate in the 5th China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue.
In his visit from 5th to 8th May 2023, the Afghan acting foreign minister will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, which includes the acting Afghan Minister for Commerce and Industry Haji Nooruddin Azizi, and senior officials from the Afghan Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Transport and Trade, according to a statement of the Foreign Office on Thursday.
Apart from holding bilateral meetings, the acting Afghan foreign minister will also participate in the 5th China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue on 6th May 2023. State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China Qin Gang, during his two-day visit from May 5-6, will participate in the Trilateral Foreign Minister’s Dialogue, besides co-chairing the 4th round of the Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue.
“The visit of the acting Afghan Foreign Minister is a continuation of Pakistan’s political engagement process with Afghanistan, which, inter alia, included visit of Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs to Kabul on 29 November 2022 and visit of a high-level delegation led by the Defence Minister of Pakistan to Kabul on 22 February 2023,” read the statement.
During the visit, it added that the two sides will review the entire spectrum of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the political, economic, trade, connectivity, peace and security, and education domains.
“Pakistan is desirous of a peaceful, prosperous, stable and connected Afghanistan and reiterates its commitment to pursue continuous and practical engagement with the Interim Afghan government,” it added.
The visit of the Taliban’s top diplomat comes as special representatives of nearly two dozen countries and international institutions discussed Afghanistan’s situation in a meeting earlier this week in Qatar. The meeting was organised by the United Nations and was chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres while the talks focused on Afghanistan, particularly the plight of women and girls under the Taliban’s interim government. Taliban authorities were not invited to attend the closed-door two-day meeting in Doha. Pakistan was represented by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar in the moot.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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