PUGUS (Tajikistan) - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan on Thursday resolved to jointly work together to promote regional cooperation and connectivity for shared prosperity.

This resolve came during a tripartite meeting among the Heads of State /Government of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan held in Dushanbe, at the invitation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. During the tripartite discussions, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon discussed economic and security challenges being faced by the region due to poor connectivity and infrastructure.

Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appreciated the initiative of President Emomali Rahmon as an opportunity to collectively reflect on the common challenges such as under development, poor connectivity and infrastructure and extremism and terrorism. The Prime Minister emphasised Pakistan's commitment to modernise facilities for speedy transit of goods to and from Afghanistan and Tajikistan through Pakistani sea ports.

In order to streamline regional transit traffic, he emphasised early finalisation of Trilateral Transit Trade Agreement. 

The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan also agreed to take measures for early implementation of the CASA-1000 project which was a harbinger for power transmission from Central Asia to South Asia and promoting sustainable economic and social development in the region.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif thanked President Rahmon for holding a quadrilateral meeting earlier in the day, among, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and other international partners in the project. He welcomed President Emomali Rahmon's proposal for establishment of a Tripartite Ministerial Commission to strengthen trilateral cooperation in political, economic and social spheres.    While highlighting Pakistan's sacrifices and successes in countering terrorism, the Prime Minister reiterated Pakistan's firm resolve to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.

He also reiterated Pakistan's desire for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan which was a prerequisite for regional security and prosperity.

He said that Pakistan will continue to support all efforts to ensure durable peace in Afghanistan through political dialogue under Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

Describing terrorism as a serious threat to peace and stability, the Prime Minister emphasised that effective border management was vital to combat the menace of terrorism by preventing cross-border movement of terrorists.

In this regard, Nawaz stressed on the need to strengthen the quadrilateral mechanism formed by Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China in August 2016 for combating terrorism.