A trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China will be held on Thursday to discuss the Afghan situation. This is the second such meeting among the three countries, and the first meeting was held in 2019. 

However, due to the Covid-19, the meeting this time will be held virtually. This comes after Bejing, a days ago, had offered to host talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan. The meeting comes at a time when China has been looking to expand its role in the Afghan conflict.

Earlier in 2020, China had convened a meeting of the three countries at the vice-ministers level. In that meeting, it urged the Taliban to negotiate a political solution with the Afghan government to end the conflict in the country. 

Earlier attempts of bringing the Taliban to a multilateral forum under the United Nations failed as the group has refused to attend Turkey Conference. However, the group said recently that they would resume intra-Afghan talks in Doha, Qatar. 

Experts believe there is little scope for any deal from the Doha process where there is no presence of any mediator. 

 (SAM)