KABUL: The Afghan Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Taliban administration’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi was scheduled to visit Pakistan by the end of this week.
The date of the visit was not specified in the statement, but sources in the diplomatic circles confirmed that the foreign minister will reach Pakistan on May 5.
“The 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,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Afghan Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Hafiz Zia Takkal posted the statement in Pashto on his official Twitter account.
“The Afghan government wants to hold comprehensive bilateral talks on political, Pakistan-Afghanistan economic relations, regional stability and transit,” the statement further said.
Muttaqi will represent Afghanistan in a trilateral meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China. It will be the sixth such trilateral meeting.
Aside from participating in the trilateral meeting, Mutaqqi will also engage in bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart during the visit.
This 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.
As of now, Pakistan has not commented on the upcoming visit.
While 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.
One such issue is Pakistan’s 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.
