LONDON: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be visiting the United Kingdom to hold talks with British officials on Afghanistan and other issues.
The foreign minister will be in London from September 26-29, a government source said.
During his visit, Shah Mahmood Qureshi will meet senior British government officials, including those responsible for dealing with Afghanistan and the wider South Asian region.
The foreign minister will also address a key defence think tank during his visit and will hold talks with British-Pakistani community leaders.
The source said that details of the foreign minister’s UK visit have been finalised and will be officially announced soon.
The foreign minister, in a recent interview to The Independent, had said the UK should “accept the new reality” in Afghanistan and deliver immediate aid to the Taliban-run country, warning that isolating the Taliban authorities would lead to economic collapse, “anarchy”, and “chaos”.
He said the UK and its Western allies were not doing enough to engage with the Taliban administration or to avert a burgeoning humanitarian crisis and urged the West to provide supplies with no political conditions attached.
“My message [to the UK] is that there is a new reality in Afghanistan. Accept the new reality and let us work to achieve our objectives,” Qureshi said.
The foreign minister warned that Pakistan would not be willing to take in any more Afghan refugees as it is already hosting several million from decades of past conflicts.
The news of his visit comes a day after UK Secretary of State for Transport Rt Hon Grant Shapps had said Pakistan would finally be removed from Britain’s red list on September 22.
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh, Kenya, Turkey, Egypt, and the Maldives are among the eight countries that are set to be removed from England’s red list, according to the British official.
