Islamabad: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar will pay a four-day visit to Beijing, China from Monday.

During the visit, he will co-chair the Fifth Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue with Chinese Foreign Minister and Director of the General Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China, Wang Yi.

The two sides will comprehensively review Pakistan-China bilateral relations including economic and trade cooperation; high-level exchanges and visits; upgradation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and future connectivity initiatives.

The two leaders will also exchange views on the unfolding regional geopolitical landscape and bilateral cooperation at the multilateral fora.

On the sidelines of the Strategic Dialogue, Ishaq Dar is expected to meet Chinese leaders, senior Ministers and leading corporate executives.

In a statement, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said: “The Deputy Prime Minister’s visit is part of regular high-level exchanges between Pakistan and China”.

She stated that it reflects the importance attached by the two countries to further deepening the ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’, reaffirming mutual support on issues of core interest, enhancing economic and trade cooperation including CPEC, and reinforcing joint commitment to regional peace and development.

(AFP): More than 200 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan province when heavy rains on Friday sparked massive flooding, the UN's International Organization for Migration told AFP.

In Baghlani Jadid district alone, up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and "more than 100 people died", an IOM emergency response lead said, citing figures from the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority.

Taliban government officials said 62 people had died as of Friday night.

Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said "hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods" in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, without differentiating the numbers of dead and injured, though he told AFP dozens had been killed.

Multiple provinces across Afghanistan saw flash flooding, with officials in northern Takhar province reporting 20 dead on Saturday.

Rains on Friday also caused heavy damage in northeastern Badakhshan province, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said.

Emergency personnel have been deployed to the affected areas and were rushing to rescue injured and stranded people, the defence ministry said.

Afghanistan -- which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall -- is highly vulnerable to climate change.

The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.