China to attend Pak's Troika Plus meet after skipping India's NSA dialogue on Afghanistan

China has announced that it will attend a meeting on Afghanistan to be hosted by its ally Pakistan on Thursday, 11 November, days after pulling out of India's security dialogue on Kabul. On Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the senior diplomats from Beijing will join their counterparts from US and Russia for the Troika Plus. Chaired by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf, the summit will hold detailed discussions on a wide range of issues related to Afghanistan including economy, transit, expanding facilities for refuges inter alia.

“China supports Pakistan in hosting this extended meeting of the China-US-Russia consultation mechanism and supports all international efforts conducive to promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and building consensus among all parties,” the Spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin told reporters as reproted by PTI. 

Wenbin also informed that the Chinese delegation would be led by Yue Xiaoyong, Special Envoy for Afghan affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Notably, the submit would also witness the participation from the Taliban government’s interim foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, marking his maiden visit to the country. During his three day visit, the insurgent turned politician will also hold bilateral talks with Qureshi.

China refuses to attend India's security dialogue in New Delhi

Earlier, China clarified that it will not be attending the upcoming regional security dialogue on Afghanistan being hosted by India. According to ANI, China was invited for the ‘Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan’ which took place on Wednesday, 10 November. But Beijing had already communicated that it would be unable to attend the meeting due to “scheduling issues”. As per the news agency, China has, however, conveyed that it is open for dialogue with India on Afghanistan multilaterally and bilaterally. 

The meeting comes two weeks after an Indian delegation met with a Taliban mission led by Afghanistan's interim government's Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi in Moscow. During the meeting, both sides expressed readiness to deliver considerable humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country. JP Singh, joint secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs' Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division, led the Indian mission. 

(Image: AP)

(With agency inputs)