Pakistan Will Not Meet Taliban Foreign Minister at Moscow Format Talks
The Pakistani delegation will not meet Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of the Taliban administration, at the eighth Moscow Format consultations, even as tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban administration are one of the main issues on the agenda. Pakistani sources told Afghanistan International that the delegation has travelled to Moscow to attend the meeting.
Muhammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, is leading the country’s delegation. The delegation also includes Naim Iqbal Cheema, director-general of the Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey desk at Pakistan’s foreign ministry; Ubaid-ur-Rahman Nizamani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul; and Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s ambassador to Moscow.
According to Pakistani sources, Muhammad Sadiq will hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference with the special representatives of Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. A Taliban administration official also said, regarding the possibility of a meeting between Muttaqi and Sadiq, that the administration had not requested such a meeting.
Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan, told the Izvestia newspaper that Moscow hopes to use the meeting to encourage Pakistan and the Taliban administration to hold talks. Russia’s foreign ministry also said participants would discuss Afghanistan’s political and economic cooperation with regional countries, as well as cooperation in counter-terrorism and the fight against drug trafficking.
Special envoys and senior officials from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are attending the meeting. Russia has also invited delegations from Belarus and Egypt as guests.
Bilateral talks between Pakistan and the Taliban administration have been suspended since October last year. Pakistan accuses the Taliban administration of providing sanctuary to armed groups opposed to Islamabad in Afghanistan. The Taliban administration rejects the allegation and accuses Islamabad of carrying out attacks and violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
In recent days, Muhammad Sadiq has criticised the Taliban administration’s policies toward armed groups in Islamabad, saying the presence of these groups in Afghanistan cannot be ignored. China’s efforts to bring the two sides into talks in the city of Urumqi in April have also so far failed to resolve the dispute.
