Afghan Foreign Minister will discuss bilateral relations with Pakistan today
Muttaqi is visiting Pakistan at a time when relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are strained due to border clashes.
According to Arab News, Motaqi is banned from traveling and buying weapons under long-standing UN Security Council sanctions, and his assets are frozen.
However, a UN committee on Monday agreed to allow the foreign minister of the Taliban administration to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan to meet the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China.
Muttaqi is visiting Pakistan at a time when Pak-Afghan relations are strained due to border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan and Pakistan's concerns about the presence of Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in Afghanistan. are growing
The outlawed TTP has stepped up attacks in Pakistan since November last year after a 'fragile ceasefire' brokered by the Afghan Taliban ended.
Pakistan's Foreign Office said in its statement that 'Acting Afghan Foreign Minister will visit Pakistan from May 5 to 8, 2023.'
The Foreign Office further said that the Afghan delegation will include Acting Minister of Trade and Industry Haji Nuruddin Azizi, senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Transport and Trade of Afghanistan.
According to the Foreign Office: 'During the visit, both sides will review all aspects of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, including political, economic, trade and ties in the fields of peace and security and education.'
Apart from the bilateral meetings, the Afghan Foreign Minister will also participate in the fifth China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers' Dialogue to be held on May 6, in which Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will also participate.
Both Chinese and Pakistani officials have said in the past that they would welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan into the multibillion-dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project that is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Afghanistan is an important geographic, trade and transit route between South and Central Asia. He owns untapped mineral resources worth billions of dollars. The Taliban took power in August 2021 after the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces at the end of the 20-year war.
According to the British news agency Reuters, according to the letter written to the 15-member committee of the Security Council, Pakistan's mission to the United Nations requested that Amir Khan Muttaqi "meet the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China" between May 6 and 9. Exemption should be granted.
However, the request did not specify what issues the ministers would discuss in the meeting. It said that Pakistan will bear all the expenses of Amir Khan Muttaqi's visit.
A committee of the Security Council last month also allowed Amir Khan Muttaqi to visit Uzbekistan to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighboring countries to discuss urgent peace, security and stability issues.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened a two-day meeting in Doha on Monday with various countries' special envoys on Afghanistan, aimed at "talking with the Taliban," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. There is mutual consensus within the international community.'
He said that important issues like human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, inclusive governance, anti-terrorism and drug trafficking will be discussed in this closed-door meeting.
China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, European Union and The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is participating, while the Taliban administration has not been invited to the Doha meeting.
In this regard, the spokesman of the Afghan Taliban, Sohail Shaheen, said yesterday that any meeting is ineffective without the representatives of the Afghan government.
Sohail Shaheen, head of the Taliban's political office in Doha, said: "Any meeting without representatives from the Islamic Emirates, which is the main party to the problem, is ineffective and sometimes counterproductive."
He further said that it is the legal right of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to be given an opportunity to clarify its position in such meetings.
"How can the decisions taken in such a meeting be accepted or enforced when we are not part of the process."
According to Sohail Shaheen: 'This is discriminatory and unjustified.'
Meanwhile, according to Pakistan's official news agency APP, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday that Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Pakistan from May 5 to 6. He will participate in the foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan talks.
Mouning said that this will be Gong's first visit to Pakistan. He said that the foreign minister's visit is an important part of the recent widening of ties between Beijing and Islamabad.
During his visit to Pakistan, the Chinese foreign minister will meet with Pakistani leaders and co-chair the fourth strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan along with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that 'Cheng Gong will directly discuss the relations between the two countries and the global and regional situation in detail.'
The spokesman added that Beijing and Islamabad are permanent strategic partners and close friends. The strong friendship between the two countries has been going on for a long time.