ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will host an important tripartite dialogue with his counterparts from China and Afghanistan today, Saturday, to discuss various regional issues, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan confirmed. 

The visit by Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, takes place a couple of days after the UN hosted a key meeting in Doha with envoys of several countries, including Pakistan, and international donors, to find ways to pressure the Taliban to provide more rights to women. The Taliban were snubbed from the meeting 

Muttaqi’s visit also takes place amid an increasing number of attacks in Pakistan, which shares a 2,600-km-long border with Afghanistan, known as the Durand Line. Pakistan has asked the Taliban to rein in militants it says are actively involved in conducting attacks from Afghan soil on Pakistani security forces. 

Meanwhile Beijing, the third participant in the dialogue, also has key interests in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and in the region. China has invested $60 billion in the ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project which has increasingly come under the spotlight due to a growing number of attacks against Chinese nationals in Pakistan. 

“The 5th China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue will be held in Islamabad today,” the APP said. 

“Acting Afghan FM, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi will lead a high-level delegation while FM Qin Gang will lead his country’s delegations in the Dialogue.”

In a meeting with Gang on Friday, Pakistan’s President Dr. Arif Alvi pledged more security for Chinese nationals in the country. 

Bhutto-Zardari returned from the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in the Indian city of Goa on Friday. 

During the summit, Pakistan’s foreign minister traded barbs with his Indian counterpart over various issues, ranging from cross-border militancy, and treatment of minorities to the status of the disputed Himalayan valley of Jammu and Kashmir.