Pakistan will hold an "Extended Troika", or "Troika Plus" conference, on Thursday, a day after its rival India hosted a regional security summit on the situation in Afghanistan in New Delhi.
The "Troika Plus" meeting in Islamabad will be inaugurated by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, an official statement said on Wednesday evening.
"Pakistan attaches high importance to the Troika Plus mechanism on the situation in Afghanistan. Pakistan hopes that deliberations of the Troika Plus meeting will contribute to the ongoing efforts for achieving lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan", said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.
Russia's Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, China’s Special Envoy for Afghan Affairs Yue Xiaoyong, and Thomas West, the US State Department's Special Representative and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Afghanistan will attend the Islamabad meeting, as per Islamabad.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that West would be travelling to Pakistan, Russia, and India during his ongoing travels in Asia and Europe.
"…we have been in regular contact with the Pakistani leadership regarding the question of Afghanistan", Price said at a departmental press briefing on Tuesday.
Pakistani officials have told local media that the representatives of the four nations will also meet interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Muttaqi is undertaking a two-day visit to Pakistan between 10 and 12 November, the first by a Taliban cabinet member since it announced the nation's new government in September.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry later said in a statement that "providing humanitarian assistance" to Afghanistan will be discussed during the upcoming meetings.
"Pakistan has been urging the international community to urgently provide humanitarian assistance and economic support to alleviate the sufferings of the Afghan people. For its part, Pakistan is extending humanitarian and economic assistance to the brotherly people of Afghanistan", said the official statement.
Pakistani officials also expressed hope that the US could "explore how flexibility can be brought on the Taliban's stance on inclusivity, women's rights, and governance matters".
Washington's decision to freeze nearly $9 billion in Afghanistan's federal assets held in US-based financial institutions has left the Taliban-controlled nation teetering on the edge of collapse.
The UN-run World Food Programme warned last month that Afghanistan was on a "countdown to catastrophe" without urgent humanitarian relief.
The meeting in Islamabad will be the first in the "Extended Troika" format since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.
A similar meeting held in Moscow, known as the "Moscow Format", in October remained incomplete as the US didn't attend the event, citing logistical issues. After the Moscow meeting, Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation stepped down and was replaced by West.
A joint statement at the end of a full-fledged meeting in March in Moscow this year refused to commit support to "the restoration of the Islamic Emirate", advocating the formation of an "inclusive government" with representation from the country's minorities and women. Another such meeting was held in Doha on 11 August.
The all-male "interim" cabinet announced by the Taliban in September, however, was described as not being "inclusive enough" by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
India Holds Its Own Meeting on Afghanistan
The Delhi Regional Security Dialogue, a National Security Adviser (NSA)-level meeting, hosted by Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval saw the participation of eight countries — India, Russia, Iran as well as the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan.
Both China and Pakistan, who were also invited to the conference in New Delhi, didn't attend the event.
While Pakistan's NSA Yusuf criticised India as a "spoiler" in Afghanistan ahead of the summit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin cited "scheduling issues" for Beijing's inability to send a representative to the event.
"I am confident that our deliberations will be productive, useful, and will contribute to help the people of Afghanistan and enhance our collective security. I will now request you all to make your opening remarks", Doval said in his opening statement at the summit.
Talking to Sputnik, Khalid Rahman, the chairman of the Islamabad-based think tank Institute of Police Studies (IPS), said the "priorities" of both India and Pakistan are very different as far as the situation in Afghanistan is concerned.
"Not only the Pakistani government, even the public here believes that India has played a negative role in Afghanistan during the past 20 years [War on Terror]", said Rahman.
"For Pakistan, the most pressing issue is availing international humanitarian aid to Afghanistan so that the economic crisis doesn't spill over into Pakistan, which would result in an exodus of Afghan refugees to Pakistan", said the think tank chief.
Before the Taliban victory in August of this year, Islamabad claimed that it had "irrefutable evidence" about India running nearly 66 terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan for Pakistan-focused violent jihadi groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Rahman justified Islamabad's decision to not attend the security conference in Delhi, arguing that the bilateral relationship must be restored to normalcy and the event invite from New Delhi must not be "viewed in isolation".
Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic ties with India after New Delhi decided to scrap the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
Islamabad says that India must reverse its August 2019 move in order for bilateral ties to be restored.
*The organisation is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities.