Prime Minister Imran Khan assured visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi of Pakistan’s full humanitarian support and asked the international community to fulfill its common responsibility of preventing a serious humanitarian disaster in the conflict-torn country.
The prime minister met with Muttaqi, who is in Pakistan for a three-day visit. Pakistan, he remarked, has always stood behind the Afghan people. Following the meeting, the prime minister tweeted that Pakistan would distribute the anti-Covid vaccine to Afghans traveling to Pakistan.
“We have assured Afghan Acting FM Amir Khan Muttaqi & his delegation we will provide all possible humanitarian aid to Afghanistan,” the prime minister tweeted. Furthermore, he added, “Pakistan will also provide free Covid-19 vaccines to all Afghans traveling across the border into Pakistan.”
The prime minister also encouraged the international community to fulfill its joint responsibility in order to prevent a serious humanitarian crisis from afflicting the Afghan people.
Foreign Minister Muttaqi is in Pakistan with a high-level group that includes the ministers of industry and finance, as well as the deputy minister of aviation. Earlier in the day, Muttaqi held a bilateral discussion with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and talked with special envoys under the Troika Plus arrangement.
Qureshi was joined by Aviation Minister Sarwar Khan, Finance and Commerce Advisors Shaukat Tarin and Razak Dawood, and other senior officials for the meeting between Qureshi and the Afghan team. Meetings of bilateral working groups on trade, transit, finance, and aviation preceded the negotiations.
Qureshi stressed Pakistan’s commitment to peace, stability, and progress in Afghanistan at the meeting. According to the Foreign Office, he emphasized Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to facilitate humanitarian and economic assistance to Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s desire to deepen bilateral relations in all sectors was underlined by Qureshi. Peace in Afghanistan, he said, will help strengthen regional stability, spur economic development, and improve connectivity.
The conclusions of the working groups’ deliberations on enhancing bilateral and transit trade regimes, as well as facilitating people’s movement by land and air, were shared during the meeting. Pakistan gave technical support in a number of areas and discussed a number of recommendations with the United States.
Muttaqi commended Pakistan for its decades of assistance for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, particularly for sheltering millions of refugees. He promised complete cooperation in expanding the two countries’ fraternal cooperative connections for the mutual benefit of their people.
