'Extended troika' on Afghanistan set to meet in Beijing next week

The special envoys of Russia, the US, Pakistan and China to Kabul are scheduled to hold a meeting in Beijing this week in the 'extended troika' format, on the sidelines of the Third ministerial conference on Afghanistan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry informed.

The 'troika plus' group or the extended troika is a multilateral grouping on Afghanistan consisting of the US, Pakistan, Russia and China.

"By agreement of all parties, within the framework of the third meeting of foreign ministers of countries neighbouring Afghanistan, which will be held on March 30-31 in the Tunxi region (Huangshan city) of Anhui province, a meeting of the consultation mechanism of the expanded 'troika' on Afghanistan will be held," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Tuesday, reported Sputnik News Agency.

According to Wang, the special envoys of Russia, the United States and Pakistan in Afghanistan will take part in the consultations, which will be chaired by the special envoy of the Chinese Foreign Ministry for Afghanistan Yue Xiaoyong.

Notably, in November last year, Islamabad had hosted a meeting of the extended Troika.

China is hosting the third regional meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan at the end of this month in Beijing. The meeting will also witness the presence of the acting Foreign Minister of the Taliban regime, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

The meeting was discussed during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Kabul where Wang met with the acting Taliban Foreign Minister.

Earlier this month, the Taliban regime had confirmed its participation in the meeting after a meeting between Muttaqi and China's ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu.

The first and second rounds of the meeting were hosted by Islamabad and Tehran respectively. The meeting in Islamabad was held in a virtual format.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor