China, Afghanistan, Pakistan trilateral dialogue to begin today

The fifth round of the Trilateral Foreign Ministers' Dialogue between Pakistan, China and Afghanistan will be held in Islamabad on Saturday.

Representing the Taliban-led administration, Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi is leading his government's high-level delegation in Pakistan where the two will be meeting with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is heading his country's delegation. The two foreign ministers arrived in Islamabad to attend the dialogue on Friday.

Besides the trilateral meeting, FM Bilawal and his Chinese counterpart Gang also co-chaired the fourth round of the Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue.

The strategic dialogue is a structured mechanism that reviews bilateral cooperation in key areas. The two sides will reaffirm the abiding vitality of the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership; develop a roadmap for multidimensional cooperation between Pakistan and China; and discuss the evolving regional and global landscape.

Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Muttaqi reached Islamabad on a four-day official visit to partake in the trilateral dialogue.

Besides attending the trilateral dialogue, the minister will also hold important meetings with the Pakistani authorities.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Afghan minister arrived in Pakistan almost a month after a high-level delegation from Islamabad visited Kabul.

A day earlier, the Foreign Office had said: "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."