ANKARA: The foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey will hold talks in Istanbul on Friday, Turkey said, after a wider Afghan peace conference was postponed because the Taliban announced 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 the United States that foreign troops would leave Afghanistan by Sept 11.

No new date has been set for those talks.

Turkey says meeting would cover recent developments about peace process

Turkey’s 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 US 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.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2021