After the arrival of the Chinese and Afghan foreign ministers, Qin Gang and Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, in Islamabad on Friday, Pakistan is slated to host a day-long trilateral conference with China and Afghanistan.
In addition to attending the fifth session of the three nations’ trilateral conference on Saturday, the two foreign ministers will hold bilateral talks with their Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) gave Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s interim foreign minister, a travel prohibition exemption earlier this month, allowing him to go to Pakistan. Under UN Security Council sanctions, he has been subject to a travel ban, asset freeze, and arms embargo for a long time.
“The government of Afghanistan wants to hold comprehensive talks on bilateral political-commercial relations, regional stability and transit between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Ziad Ahmad Takkal, deputy spokesperson of the Afghan foreign ministry, said on Friday.
While this is the Chinese foreign minister’s first visit to Pakistan, Muttaqi last visited in November 2021, just months after the Afghan Taliban took control of Kabul.
The Afghan minister’s journey to Pakistan comes the same week as the United Nations conducted an Afghanistan summit in Doha, Qatar, without inviting the country’s Taliban leadership.
