Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the sixth round of trilateral talks between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, China and the Taliban in Kabul focused on political, economic and security cooperation.
The ministry said the three sides stressed the need to strengthen joint efforts against terrorism.
According to a statement, they also reaffirmed commitments to deepen cooperation in trade, transit, regional development, health, education, culture and counter-narcotics, and agreed to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.
The Taliban, in a separate statement, said the meeting reviewed decisions from previous rounds and emphasized boosting political, economic and transit ties among the three parties.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was quoted as saying, “Our region has many opportunities for expanding cooperation, and we believe we can use them for the benefit of our countries. This trilateral mechanism gives us a chance to have practical and focused discussions on ways to further develop cooperation.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described his country’s relations with the Taliban as “developing” and said cooperation had expanded across several sectors, according to the Taliban statement.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also called the trilateral talks “important” and said they provided “a good opportunity to expand mutual cooperation.”
Both Pakistan and China have repeatedly voiced concerns about militant groups operating in Afghanistan. Pakistan has urged the Taliban to act against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), although the Taliban deny the group’s presence. A United Nations monitoring group has reported that TTP maintains around 6,000 fighters in Afghanistan.
