Afghanistan, Pakistan, China to Hold Meeting in Kabul Next Week

DID Press: Following the suspension of Amir Khan Muttaqi’s trip to Pakistan, he is set to host Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, as well as Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, in Kabul next week.

The sixth “China–Afghanistan–Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue” will be held on August 20 to review the decisions made at the informal meeting in Beijing this past May.

The fifth meeting of this mechanism was held in May 2023 in Islamabad. This trilateral framework is considered highly important for addressing security challenges that pose serious threats to regional and global stability as well as economic prosperity.

The joint statement issued after the fifth meeting emphasized the need to prevent any individual, group, or party — including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), and others — from using the territory of any country to carry out terrorist activities.

China considers the East Turkestan movement a direct threat to its security and claims that its members are based in Afghanistan.

The caretaker government says that it will not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used against neighboring or other countries.

The upcoming meeting comes amid an increase in militant violence in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

According to the Pakistani military, around 50 militants were killed this week during a counter-infiltration operation in the Sambaza area of Zhob district, Balochistan, near the Pakistan–Afghanistan border.

Pakistani officials have long claimed that armed groups operate from Afghanistan territory — a claim Kabul denies