China to host 3rd meeting of Afghanistan’s neighbors

KABUL (Pajhwok): Reports say that a meeting of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries will be held in China at the end of March this year, while a representative of the new Afghan administration would also attend the session.

According to Tasnim News Agency, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah MahmoodQureshi said that the next round of Afghanistan’s neighbors meeting will be hosted by China with the participation of an Afghan government’s representative.

Talking to reporters about the recent visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran to China, he said that the two countries had detailed discussions about bilateral ties and the situation in Afghanistan.

State run Radio Pakistan quoted the country’s foreign minister as saying that the expected meeting would be held in China at the end of March.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also in a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdullahian,said that the third round of Afghanistan’s neighbors meeting would be held in person in Beijing late in March.

The first meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s six neighboring countries, including Iran, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, was held on September 8, which was chaired by Pakistan.

A second meeting of the kind was held in Tehran on October 27 in which Russia was also invited.

Earlier, deputy spokesman of the Afghan government, InamullahSamangani, said that they supported regional meetings on Afghanistan and considered it in the country’s interest.

He had said the Taliban were not worried about such meetings and hoped that it would pave way for cooperation with Afghanistan.

Mds/ma

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