UN allows Taliban envoy to meet Pakistan, China ministers
A United Nation Security Council committee on Monday agreed to allow the Taliban administration's foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan from Afghanistan next week to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China, diplomats said.
Taliban FM Muttaqi has long been subjected to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under UN Security Council sanctions.
According to a letter to the 15-member Security Council Taliban sanctions committee, Pakistan's UN mission requested an exemption for Muttaqi was to travel between May 6-9 'for a meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China.'
Chinese and Pakistani officials have both said in the past that they would welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan into the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Afghanistan sits as a key geographical trade and transit route between South and Central Asia and has billions of dollars of untapped mineral resources. The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as United States-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.
The Security Council committee allowed FM Muttaqi to travel to Uzbekistan previous month for a meeting of the foreign ministers of neighboring countries of Afghanistan to discuss urgent peace, security, and stability matters.
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