KABUL
\n The Afghan Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Taliban administration\u2019s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi was scheduled to visit Pakistan by the end of this week.
\nHowever, the date of the visit was not specified in the statement.
\n\u201cThe foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan Maulvi Amir Khan Mutaqqi is scheduled to visit Islamabad by the end of the current week. He will lead a comprehensive political and business delegation,\u201d a foreign ministry statement said.
\nAfghan Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Hafiz Zia Takkal posted the statement in Pashto on his official Twitter account.
\n\u201cThe Afghan government wants to hold comprehensive bilateral talks on political, Pakistan-Afghanistan economic relations, regional stability and transit,\u201d the statement further said.
\nMuttaqi will represent Afghanistan in a trilateral meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China. It will be the sixth such trilateral meeting
\nAside from participating in the trilateral meeting, Mutaqqi will also engage in bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart during the visit.
\nThis will be his second visit to Pakistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, 2021, with his last visit to Islamabad taking place in November of the same year.
\nAs of now, Pakistan has not commented on the upcoming visit.
\nWhile the Afghan foreign ministry has listed certain issues which will be discussed during the upcoming talks with Pakistan, there may be other issues that Pakistan wants to address as well.
\nOne such issue is Pakistan\u2019s desire for Kabul to take action against the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistani officials say operates from Afghan territory. However, the Taliban government in Afghanistan denies these assertions.
\nIn February, a high-level Pakistani delegation, led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, travelled to Kabul to discuss the TTP issue.
\nAnother issue that Pakistan is likely to raise is the activities of the Islamic State\u2019s Khorasan group in Afghanistan.
\nIn December of the previous year, this group claimed responsibility for the attack on Pakistani charge d\u2019affaires, Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani.
\nIn addition to these security-related matters, trade relations and transit issues will also likely be discussed during the talks. The Afghan foreign ministry statement has already highlighted the importance of such discussions.
\nNotably, Afghanistan\u2019s exports have increased during the Taliban government, primarily due to the import of coal and vegetables following last year\u2019s devastating floods that destroyed crops.
\nOn Monday, a UN Security Council committee agreed to allow Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China, diplomats said.
\nMuttaqi has long been subjected to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under Security Council sanctions.
\nAccording to a letter to the 15-member Security Council, Taliban sanctions committee, Pakistan\u2019s UN mission requested an exemption for Muttaqi, who was to travel between May 6-9 \u201cfor a meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China\u201d. It did not say what the ministers would discuss. It said Pakistan would cover all costs associated with Muttaqi\u2019s trip.
\nChinese and Pakistani officials have both said in the past that they would welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan into the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
\nAfghanistan sits as a key geographical trade and transit route between South and Central Asia and has billions of dollars of untapped mineral resources. The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.
\nThe Security Council committee allowed Muttaqi to travel to Uzbekistan last month for a meeting of the foreign ministers of neighbouring countries of Afghanistan to discuss urgent peace, security, and stability matters.
\nUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres began a two days meeting on Monday in Doha with special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries that aims \u201cto achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban,\u201d UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
\nDujarric said the closed-door meeting would discuss key issues, such as human rights \u2018in particular women\u2019s and girls\u2019 rights\u2019 inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking.
\nTaking part are China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Britain, the United States, Uzbekistan, the European Union and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
\nThe Taliban administration was not invited to the Doha meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL The Afghan Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Taliban administration\u2019s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi was scheduled to visit Pakistan by the end of this week. However, the date of the visit was not specified in the statement. \u201cThe foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan Maulvi Amir Khan Mutaqqi is scheduled to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-328921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n