By Our Diplomatic Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey will hold talks in Istanbul on Friday, Ankara said, after a wider Afghan peace conference was postponed because the Taliban said they would not participate. The planned peace talks in Turkey were scheduled for April 24 to fast-track an agreement between the Taliban and Afghan government in light of the announcement by Washington that foreign troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11. No new date has been set for those talks.
Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday’s three-way meeting would cover “recent developments regarding the Afghan peace process, cooperation in the fields of security, energy, connectivity, and irregular migration”.
On Monday, Pakistan urged the Taliban to remain engaged in the Afghan peace process after the armed group said it would now shun summits about Afghanistan until all foreign forces leave. The decision was taken after the United States said last week it would withdraw all troops by Sept. 11 this year, later than a May 1 deadline set out by the previous administration. Taliban and Afghan government negotiators began peace talks last year in the Qatar capital of Doha, but progress was slow and violence continued to escalate in Afghanistan.
