Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will make his first visit to Pakistan this week, during which he will hold strategic talks with the country's top officials and is expected to attend a trilateral meeting on Afghanistan, according to a media report. The Chinese leader will arrive in Islamabad on May 5, soon after attending the 2023 SCO Foreign Ministers' Meeting in India.

The meeting will be held in Islamabad and will be attended by Interim Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki. Diplomats said a UN Security Council committee agreed on Monday to allow Muttaki to travel from Afghanistan to Pakistan next week to meet with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China.

Muttaki has long been subject to a travel ban, asset freeze and arms embargo under Security Council sanctions. Both Chinese and Pakistani officials had earlier said they would welcome Taliban-led Afghanistan to the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, which is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road initiative. .

Afghanistan is located as a major geographical trade and transit route between South and Central Asia and has untapped mineral resources worth billions of dollars. The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.

A Security Council committee last month allowed Taliban leader Muttaki to travel to Uzbekistan for a meeting of foreign ministers of neighboring countries of Afghanistan to discuss matters of urgent peace, security and stability.