China, Pakistan, Afghanistan To Hold Trilateral Talks In Islamabad On September 7

Amid reports of US and Taliban militants coming close to signing a peace deal to end the Afghanistan war, the third round of trilateral dialogue of foreign ministers from China, Afghanistan and Pakistan will take place in Islamabad on Saturday. The meeting will be chaired by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said Pak foreign office. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Afghanistan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani will lead their respective delegations. Moreover, the Trump administration wants Taliban to ensure that Afghanistan does not turn into a safe haven for extremist groups. 

Beijing became the host of the first trilateral dialogue in 2017. Next time the leaders converged in Kabul for the meeting in December 2018. 

The major areas of discussion in the dialogue will be to bolster political relations, securing peace in Afghanistan and develop counter-terror mechanism. Moreover, Afghanistan president has postponed his visit to Washington where he was to discuss the US-Taliban talks aimed at putting an end to the prolonged war Afghanistan. 

On one side, US seeks to withdraw its forces from war-torn Afghanistan while Ghani’s government has raised objections to the deal between US and Taliban. Ghani’s government is of the view that the total withdrawal of US troops will mean a civil war in ‘Afghanistan’.  
However, Taliban have termed the Afghani government as the ‘puppet of the United States’ and rejected any negotiations with the Ghani government.

On the other hand, it has expressed the willingness to meet with the Afghan officials in their personal capacity. Meanwhile, Taliban have justified the deadly attacks by calling them as the need to acquire stronger negotiating position for themselves in talks with the US. 

(With PTI inputs)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Third round of trilateral dialogue will take place in Islamabad 
• Beijing became the host of the first trilateral dialogue in 2017
• Taliban have termed the Afghani government as the ‘puppet of the US’