ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday acknowledged that Pakistan was engaging with Beijing on the issue of the recent Pakistan-Afghanistan border hostilities.
During his weekly briefing, spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had recently held a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, adding that Islamabad and Beijing “cherish a long-standing strategic partnership, founded in mutual trust and deep respect”.
“We [Pakistan and China] enjoy unanimity of views on all issues, including with respect to Afghanistan. As you know, we are engaged in a dialogue process on Afghanistan. Afghanistan features both in our bilateral dialogue as well as in our trilateral dialogue framework,” Mr Andrabi added.
Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq on Feb 26 against the Afghan Taliban after “unprovoked firing” from across the border. The reference to an ongoing dialogue process seemed to refer to recent engagements between Chinese diplomats with Afghan officials.
Beijing’s special envoy ‘shuttling between two countries’; Chinese foreign ministry says bringing both countries back to the table ‘most urgent task’
China’s ambassador to Kabul, Zhao Xing, and the special envoy Dr Yue Xiaoyong met Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi this week, the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.
“In our talks with [the] Afghanistan [foreign minister] and [industry and commerce] minister, [the] Afghan side also stressed their readiness to redouble efforts to solve recent cases of terrorist attacks and enhance security and protection of Chinese people working inside Afghanistan,” Dr Yue wrote in a post on X.
“China’s special envoy for Afghanistan affairs is currently shuttling between the two countries to mediate, while Chinese embassies in both nations maintain close communication with the respective parties,” the Chinese foreign ministry told Reuters in an e-mail.
“The most urgent task is to prevent the fighting from expanding and for the two countries to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.”
Beijing has invested heavily in mines and minerals in both nations.
‘Not official effort’
The FO spokesperson further said that a delegation visiting Afghanistan, reportedly to hold talks with the Afghan Taliban, was not an “official effort”.
“I would not try to, sort of, underestimate or minimise the importance of this visit, but let me tell you that this visit certainly is not part of any official efforts. These individuals, the leader of the delegation, and their visit to Afghanistan – all details we are not aware of. They are in a non-official capacity from our perspective,” he said.
He also confirmed that Chinese envoy Dr Yue was visiting Pakistan and hoped to have “productive discussions with the Chinese side on our shared concerns, particularly on terrorism emanating from Afghanistan”.
But, he expressed a lack of knowledge about any Turkish delegation visiting Pakistan, reportedly to broker a ceasefire between Islamabad and Kabul.
