Islamabad: The Taliban government in Kabul will be invited to the third ministerial meeting likely to be held in China early next year, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said, urging the world community to recognise the reality that the war in Afghanistan had ended and the hardline group was in power.
Constructive engagement with kabul
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi underscored the need for the recognition of the reality that the war in Afghanistan had “ended and the Taliban are in power”. About Pakistan’s policy on Afghanistan, Qureshi said the “strategy is to maintain constructive engagement with Afghanistan”.
Speaking at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Qureshi said Pakistan had worked out a new mechanism for consultations among Afghanistan’s neighbours on the developments in the war-ravaged country after the Taliban takeover in mid-August.
“Afghanistan’s interim government will also be invited to the next meeting of Afghanistan’s neighbours,” a daily quoted him as saying on Wednesday.
The format for the meeting includes China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, besides Russia. The inaugural meeting was held in Islamabad on September 8, while the second meeting was hosted by Iran on October 27.
The Taliban were not invited to either of the meetings because the new regime in Kabul lacked international recognition.
The participants of the second meeting had in their joint communique called on the “international community to remain positively engaged with Afghanistan and develop a long-term roadmap to advance the agenda of political engagement, economic integration and regional connectivity”.
The next meeting will take place in China. Although dates have not been finalised, it is likely to be held early next year, the report said.