Pakistan, Afghanistan officials to meet in China’s Urumqi under trilateral mechanism

Officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and China are meeting on Wednesday in the Chinese city of Urumqi under the trilateral mechanism, said a senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan on February 26, diplomatic contact between the two sides had largely ceased.

The MoFA official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of negotiations, said the meeting is not a “mediation effort per se”.

Another Pakistani official, familiar with the development, said Beijing requested Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who was in the Chinese capital on Tuesday, for Islamabad’s participation as Kabul had asked for assistance from the Chinese in bringing Islamabad to the table.

He added that China also has concerns about the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) — a transnational terrorist outfit known to operate in Afghanistan.

“The Afghan side is showing willingness to walk the talk this time and has agreed to discuss a verifiable mechanism on some of the key demands by Pakistan and China on TTP and ETIM.”

He elaborated that these are “exploratory discussions” to gauge the seriousness of the Afghan side, adding that the DG-level talks are being led by the additional secretary of the Afghan desk at the Foreign Office (FO) from the Pakistan side.

The official further said that the diplomat was already present in China as he was accompanying the foreign minister. “The Pakistan delegation also includes military and intelligence officials.”

The Afghan delegation includes members of the interior and foreign ministries as well as officials from Afghanistan’s General Directorate of Intelligence.

There has been a resurgence in terrorism in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

Operation Ghazab lil-Haq was launched on the night of February 26, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border.

From March 18 to 23, Pakistan observed a five-day temporary pause in the operation on the occasion of Eidul Fitr, with the FO later saying it would continue “until its objectives are achieved”.

De-escalation requests from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye were part of the reasons behind the pauses announced by both sides, according to their respective statements.

In early March, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had said that peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan could only prevail if the Taliban regime “renounced their support for terrorism and terrorist organisations”.