ISTANBUL 

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday held talks with his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi, during the former’s second trip to Kabul since March 2022.

Ahead of a trilateral meeting between the Chinese, Afghan and Pakistani top diplomats, Wang and Muttaqi held a bilateral meeting, discussing cooperation between the two countries in various fields, said a statement by the Afghan Foreign Ministry.

Muttaqi described ties with China as “progressing” and said that Kabul considers China “a good trading partner,” as the bilateral trade had reached $1 billion.

He made “practical proposals” regarding the expansion of economic cooperation between Afghanistan and China, particularly in the areas of transportation, banking, and balancing trade, said the statement.

Muttaqi “once again emphasized that Afghanistan's soil will never be used against its neighbors.”

According to the Afghan statement, Wang described ties with Kabul as “progressing and considered the expansion of cooperation in various fields noteworthy.”

“The relevant institutions of both countries are working to further increase Afghanistan’s exports to China,” Wang said, adding Beijing “is eager to support the Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI).

Notably, Beijing has pushed to expand the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of the BRI, to Afghanistan.

Kabul is hosting the first multilateral diplomatic development, bringing together top diplomats of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The interim Afghan administration has only been recognized by Russia since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021.

Pakistan will be represented by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

During the trilateral meeting, "comprehensive discussions will be held on a range of diplomatic topics, including political, regional and economic cooperation," Hafiz Zia Ahmad, a spokesman for Kabul's Foreign Ministry, said in a post on US social media company X.

The last round of trilateral talks between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan was held in China in May.