KABUL – Pakistan and Afghanistan instead of blame game should engage inconcrete cooperation, said Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua addressing theAfghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Solidarity (APAPS) in Kabul onSaturday.Janjua condemned the Kabul terrorist attacks and offered Pakistan’sassistance for a joint investigation.
The government of Afghanistan was urged to take action againstanti-Pakistan terrorists. Pakistan also emphasised the need forstrengthening border management on the Afghan side.
A top-level delegation of Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, led byForeign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, reached Afghanistan earlier today toattend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Working Group meeting.
Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal on Friday confirmed themeeting and said Pakistan had proposed five joint working groups, focusingon ensuring a comprehensive engagement for countering terrorism,intelligence sharing, military, economy, trade and transit interaction,refugee repatriation and connectivity.
Reiterating Pakistan’s stance that there is no military solution to theAfghan problem, he said only an Afghan-led and owned peace process willensure peace in the country.
The FO spokesperson also reaffirmed that Pakistan will continue to supportefforts for peace in Afghanistan, but the Afghan government needs to reacha settlement with different Afghan groups.
A high-level Afghan delegation visited Pakistan earlier this week todiscuss important issues of mutual interest. The delegation, comprising theAfghan interior minister and the chief of National Directorate of Security,met with Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi.
Shedding light on the meeting, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had stressedthe need to resolve Pak-Afghan issues bilaterally and said Pakistan “standswith its Afghan brothers in this hour of grief,” referring to the recentspate of bomb-and-gun attacks in Kabul over the past month which haveclaimed nearly 200 lives.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Fridayreiterated that Pakistan does not want any violence or terrorism inAfghanistan and that it has suffered from the instability across the border.
In an interview, Aizaz said it was disappointing that Kabul blamed Pakistanfor the ensuing violence, adding that Pakistan will benefit the most —apart from the people of Afghanistan — if peace returns to Afghanistan.
Ambassador Aizaz said that Pakistan would like to have good relations withthe United States and the two countries have worked together for sevendecades.
He added that Pakistan believes in a relationship based on mutual respectand trust.