ISLAMABAD: Pakistan hosted special representatives from the United States, China and Russia for the Troika Plus meeting on Thursday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign office said.
The high-level meeting in the Pakistani capital comes at a time when the Taliban’s interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, is also in Islamabad to discuss bilateral relations.
This is the first visit of Muttaqi, the top Afghan diplomat, to Pakistan since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on August 15.
“Pakistan attaches high importance to the Troika Plus mechanism on the situation in Afghanistan,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Pakistan hopes that deliberations of the Troika Plus meeting would contribute to the ongoing efforts for achieving lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
The meeting was inaugurated by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who said Pakistan was acting as a “responsible neighbor.”
On Wednesday, India also hosted senior security officials from Russia, Iran and five Central Asian countries to discuss the Afghanistan situation, with both Pakistan and China boycotting the moot.
Thomas West, the new US special envoy for Afghanistan who is in Islamabad for the Troika Plus moot, will also be meeting Taliban foreign minister Muttaqi.
This is West’s first trip to the region since taking over from Zalmay Khalilzad, the long-serving diplomat who spearheaded the talks that led to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The US State Department said earlier this week that West also planned to visit Russia and India.
