Afghanistan's government on Thursday announced that a high level Pakistani delegation - led by Sartaj Aziz, advisor to Pakistani prime minister on foreign relations - will visit Afghanistan in the near future to hold talks with Afghan officials on the implementation of agreements signed between Islamabad and Kabul.
"The president, after meeting with the Chinese president and Pakistani prime minister, opened a new chapter. The Chinese foreign minister also visited Afghanistan and Pakistan and we hope that these talks will help establish a new chapter of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan," said deputy presidential spokesman Dawa Khan Menapal.
"The first delegation will come from Pakistan and the focus of the talks would be on improving bilateral relations and it is applicable once we cooperate in the war against terrorism. The expectations which we have from Pakistan in the peace process need to be addressed," said Jawed Faisal, deputy spokesman for the CEO, Abdullah Abdullah.
Meanwhile, the office of the CEO has expressed hope that the issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan can be resolved with the help of China's engagement.
Over the past 18 months, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have had their ups and downs as the two countries continue to engage in a war of words over certain issues, particularly regarding the war on terror.
This comes just days after China, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to form a foreign ministers dialogue mechanism.
In the past, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed several agreements - however none of the agreements proved beneficial in resolving bilateral issues between the two nations.
As a result, political commentators are now not optimistic and believe the upcoming meetings and the new agreements will not furnish satisfactory results.
"Regarding the intelligence sharing agreement between these two services (Pakistan-Afghanistan intelligence agencies) I would say that Pakistan will try to provide only unsubstantiated information to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS); on the other hand, whenever the NDS provides information to Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI), this will help ISI to identify Afghanistan's sources on both sides of the Durand Line and always keep its grip on it," said political activist Ajmal Balochzada.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long accused each other of turning a blind eye to militants operating along their porous border.
But the Afghan government stresses that the intelligence sharing agreement will help the two countries to hold effective discussions on the issue of terrorism and act during emergency situations.
On announcing the new agreement in a joint press statement, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan called on the Taliban to join the national reconciliation process.
The statement also noted that the three parties support the Kabul Process initiative, "and hold the view that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization-Afghanistan Contact Group should be revived as early as possible so as to play a constructive role in moving forward the Afghan reconciliation process."
This comes after China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Afghanistan and Pakistan over the weekend.
During this visit the three sides held in-depth discussions on the situation in Afghanistan, the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan and China-Afghanistan-Pakistan trilateral cooperation.
But, the question remains as to whether Afghanistan, Pakistan and China are able to find a solution to the crisis in Afghanistan without engaging the U.S in the process.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/7360
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