Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to avoid any escalation in their armed conflict, during talks hosted by China in recent days, Beijing said on Wednesday.

“Representatives from China, Afghanistan and Pakistan held a week of informal meetings in Urumqi, Xinjiang, from April 1 to 7,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

The three delegations “engaged in frank and pragmatic discussions in a positive atmosphere”, she said at a regular news conference in Beijing.

According to the spokeswoman, Afghanistan and Pakistan stated “their commitment to resolving their differences as soon as possible and realising a return to normalcy in bilateral relations, agreeing not to take any actions that would escalate or complicate the situation”.

The Foreign Office (FO) has not issued any official statement on the matter yet and declined to comment on the development when approached by Dawn.

Since Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan in late February, diplomatic contact between the two sides had largely ceased.

The talks in China were held under a trilateral mechanism as tensions between Islamabad and Kabul remain elevated following recent cross-border security developments.

On April 2, FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said during a weekly briefing that while Pakistan was holding talks with Afghanistan to end the conflict, Kabul must “demonstrate visible and verifiable actions”.

He said Pakistan had sent the delegation to China “in line with its consistent position and longstanding practice of supporting a credible process that can lead to [a] durable solution … to stop border terrorism from Afghanistan”.

“Our participation is a reiteration of our core concerns,” he stated. “The burden of real process, however, lies with Afghanistan, which must demonstrate visible and verifiable actions against terrorist groups using Afghan soil against Pakistan.”

Recent Pak-Afghan ties

There has been a resurgence in terrorism in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned TTP. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

Operation Ghazab lil-Haq was launched on the night of February 26, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border.

From March 18 to 23, Pakistan observed a five-day temporary pause in the operation on the occasion of Eidul Fitr, with the FO later saying it would continue “until its objectives are achieved”.

De-escalation requests from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye were part of the reasons behind the pauses announced by both sides, according to their respective statements.

In early March, Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had said that peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan could only prevail if the Taliban regime “renounced their support for terrorism and terrorist organisations”.

Additional input from Tahir Khan