Islamabad appreciates Taliban delegation’s visit to China

Pakistan on Friday welcomed the visit of the Taliban delegation to China, where they held talks with the country’s leadership as the situation in the restive country evolves rapidly in light of the escalating conflict.

The Taliban delegation had travelled to China where they held talks with the Chinese leadership. The insurgents were represented by Mullah Baradar.

“Pakistan is a close and brotherly neighbour of Afghanistan, and the only country that has consistently emphasised that there is no military solution to the Afghan conflict,” said Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri today.

“All neighbours of Afghanistan, including China, have been supporting a political resolution of the Afghan conflict.

“Pakistan and China are committed to facilitating and supporting Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process”, he added.

Chaudhri, in response to a question, said India was unfortunately playing the role of a spoiler in the Afghan peace process and was opposed to it. He said New Delhi was trying to foil efforts by foreign countries as well to bring about an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process.

He rejecetd the notion that Islamabad was seeking to downgrade its ties with Kabul.

“Pakistan has no intention to downgrade diplomatic relations with Afghanistan despite the recent case of the daughter of the Afghan ambassador, which compelled Kabul to recall its ambassador and other senior diplomats from Islamabad,” he said.

“Regarding the possibility of the downgrading of diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, Pakistan believes in maintaining close, cooperative and brotherly relations with Afghanistan. There is no plan to downgrade our diplomatic relations with Afghanistan”, the spokesman responded.

“While a significant progress has been made in this case, we believe that the cooperation of Afghan ambassador and his daughter is critical in concluding the investigation”, he said.