Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan embarks on a visit to the Afghan capital, Kabul, for delegation-level talks with President Ashraf Ghani on bilateral relations, the shaky Afghan peace process and other issues, according to a statement. Pakistani.
Khan landed in Kabul on Thursday for his first visit to Pakistan’s neighboring northwest, where he has been facilitating peace talks between the government and the Afghan Taliban.
Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar and Ghani’s special envoy for Pakistan Omar Daudzay welcomed the visiting dignitary at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Graan Hewad, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, said the visiting prime minister would share his views with the Afghan leadership on Islamabad’s role in the peace process.
Earlier, a Pakistani statement said that the focus of the talks would be “to further deepen the fraternal bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Afghan peace process and regional economic development and connectivity.”
Khan will be accompanied by Chancellor Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his trade and investment adviser, Razzaq Dawood.
The Pakistani prime minister’s visit comes at a time of increased engagement between the two neighbors, with numerous Afghan government officials visiting Pakistan in the previous months, including Afghan peace chief Abdullah Abdullah, the speaker of the lower house of Parliament. from Afghanistan, Rahman Rahmani, and the Minister of Commerce, Nisar Ahmad. Ghoraini.
In October, Pakistan also welcomed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami, an armed group that laid down its arms in 2016.
Talks schedule
Peace talks between Afghan government negotiators and the Afghan Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha will be the focus of attention during Khan’s visit.
Historic talks between the two sides to end a 19-year war in Afghanistan began in September after the United States had signed an agreement with the Afghan Taliban in February.
As talks continue, progress has been slow, and both sides have yet to agree on a framework on how to proceed.
On Tuesday, the United States announced that it would drastically reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 before incumbent President Donald Trump leaves office in mid-January, accelerating the country’s military withdrawal.
The announcement came as violence has increased, and the Taliban continue to carry out attacks against government leaders, security forces and civilians.
Following the US announcement, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that a “hasty” withdrawal by the United States, which leads the NATO coalition in Afghanistan, could provoke further violence.
“Now we are faced with a difficult decision. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years and no NATO ally wants to stay longer than necessary. But at the same time, the price for leaving too early or in an uncoordinated way could be very high, “Stoltenberg said in a statement Monday.
Also likely on the agenda of Thursday’s talks are recent Pakistani accusations that India, with whom it has fought three large-scale wars since the two countries gained independence, has used Afghan soil to “sponsor terrorism” in Pakistan.
On Sunday, the day after the accusations were made, Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry “vigorously rejected” the accusations.
“The Foreign Ministry, after carefully reviewing the video of the press conference, rejects the accusation and reiterates that there is absolutely no evidence that Malik (Feraydoon Khan) Mohmand, one of the tribal leaders of Nangarhar province, was involved in terrorist attacks on the Peshawar Agricultural University, ”the Afghan statement said.
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