Pakistan and Afghan Taliban representatives today launched the third round of crucial peace talks in Istanbul, mediated jointly by Türkiye and Qatar, with the singular aim of permanently ending cross-border terrorism and transforming last month’s fragile ceasefire into lasting stability.
The two-day principal-level dialogue follows intense border clashes between October 11–15 that brought bilateral ties to their lowest ebb since 2021. After two earlier rounds in Doha and Istanbul failed to yield a final agreement, both sides return to the table with renewed determination to implement concrete, verifiable mechanisms.
Pakistan-Afghanistan next round of talks on November 6 in Istanbul
Islamabad bets on a positive outcome
Can peacetalk break the deadlock over border clashes? @eriknjoka tells you more pic.twitter.com/mUxwjz6aWW
— WION (@WIONews) November 5, 2025
Pakistan’s delegation is led by Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Asim Malik and includes senior officials from the military, intelligence agencies, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Afghan Taliban delegation comprises General Directorate of Intelligence chief Abdul Haq Waseq, Deputy Interior Minister Rehmatullah Najib, spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, Anas Haqqani, Qahar Balkhi, Zakir Jalali, and Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara.
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A joint Turkish Foreign Ministry statement issued after the October 25–29 round confirmed that “all parties have agreed on continuation of ceasefire” and committed to establish a robust “monitoring and verification mechanism that will ensure maintenance of peace and impose a penalty on the violating party.”
Today’s talks will review compliance with those commitments and finalise the mechanism’s modalities.
Islamabad’s red line remains unchanged: Afghan soil must never again be used to launch attacks on Pakistan. “The Pakistan military and intelligence service have a single-point agenda—the end of terrorism,” DG ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry reiterated this week. Pakistani officials are seeking “concrete, verifiable guarantees” that TTP and other groups will be dismantled, not sheltered.
Despite earlier setbacks—including Information Minister Attaullah Tarar’s October 29 statement that the second round “failed to bring about any workable solution”—mediators Türkiye and Qatar successfully kept the process alive, paving the way for today’s meeting.
As delegations convene at the principal level for the first time, both sides and the international community hope this round will mark the turning point from confrontation to cooperation, delivering enduring peace along the 2,600-km border and a safer future for millions on both sides.
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