Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang heads to Pakistan with Afghanistan talks high on agenda

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will visit Pakistan on Friday with efforts to resolve the crisis in Afghanistan high on the agenda.

During his two-day stopover, Qin will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and will also join in three-way talks with the Taliban’s interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Mutaqi.

Mutaqi, who is the subject of a travel ban under United Nations Security Council sanctions, was granted an exemption to travel to Pakistan for the meeting.

“China hopes that this visit will follow through on the important common understandings between the leaders of the two countries,” the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday, referring to a phone call between Sharif and Premier Li Qiang last week, as well as the Pakistani leader’s meeting with President Xi Jinping in November.

During the visit, Xi pledged further collaboration in the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – a US$60 billion transport infrastructure project – and support for efforts to stabilise the Pakistani economy.

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Qin’s trip also aims to “further deepen strategic communication and practical cooperation, promote the building of an ever closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, and contribute positive energy to the region and the wider world,” according to the Chinese statement.

The statement also used Beijing’s preferred formulations to describe the relationship between the two countries, alluding to their “ironclad friendship” and “all-weather strategic partnership”

Qin will travel to Pakistan after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Panaji, the capital of the Indian state of Goa. His tour also included where he became the most senior Chinese official to meet junta leader Min Aung Hlaing since the 2021 coup that brought him to power.

Afghanistan is currently facing what the UN has warned is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, while China has frequently expressed concern about the risk of terrorism spilling over across its border.

Beijing has not officially recognised the Taliban, which seized power in 2021 when the previous Western-backed government collapsed, but has offered to cooperate in boosting economic ties and with self-governance.

Qin has attended various Afghanistan-related meetings since talking on the role of foreign minister, including talks with neighbouring foreign ministers in Uzbekistan last month, where he urged the Taliban to work more closely with neighbouring countries and show “more inclusiveness and progressiveness” in building a government.

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The foreign ministry in Beijing said on Thursday the talks had served as “important platforms for exchanges and cooperation”, adding that Afghanistan is “in dire need of more support and help from the rest of the world”.

“The international community needs to step up contact and dialogue with the Afghan interim government, support its reconstruction and development efforts, and encourage it to build an inclusive government, exercise moderate governance, develop friendly relations with its neighbours and firmly fight terrorism,” the spokesperson was quoted.