ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister, Maulavi Amir Khan Muttaqi, is set to lead a high-level delegation to Pakistan on Friday, according to a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Afghan delegation will remain in Pakistan from May 5 to 8 and will include senior officials from the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Industry, Transport, and Trade. The visit comes almost a month after a high-level delegation from Islamabad visited Kabul.
During the visit, both countries will review the whole spectrum of bilateral ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the political, trade, economic, connectivity, peace and security, and education domains.
Acting Afghan foreign minister, Muttaqi will also participate in the 5th Pakistan-China-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue on May 6, which will also be attended by the Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister of China Qin Gang.
Pakistan committed to engagement with Afghan government
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said Pakistan is committed to pursuing continuous and practical engagement with the interim Afghan government and is desirous of a peaceful, prosperous, stable and connected Afghanistan.
The visit of Amir Khan Muttaqi is a continuation of the political engagement process of Pakistan with Afghanistan, which included visits by Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and a high-level delegation led by Pakistan’s Defence Minister to Kabul in November 2022 and February 2023, respectively.
The development comes after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) committee agreed to allow the Taliban administration’s foreign minister to meet with foreign ministers and diplomats of Pakistan and China.
The Afghan minister had been under an arms embargo, a travel ban, and an asset freeze following sanctions by the UN Security Council.
Pakistan’s UN mission requested an exemption for Amir Khan Muttaqi to travel between May 6-9 “for a meeting with the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan” in a letter to the 15-member Security Council Taliban sanctions committee.
Afghanistan is a key geographical trade and transit route between Central and South Asia and has billions of dollars of untapped mineral resources. The Afghan Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.
