ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and the United States plan to bolster teamwork to bring Taliban on negotiation table as the US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells flies to Pakistan today (November 6).

Last month, Pakistan released Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar under the US pressure amid Washington’s bid to negotiate a peace deal with the militants in Afghanistan.

Before Baradar’s release, Alice Wells had pointed out that the US President Donald Trump was ‘disappointed’ after ‘no headway was made’ with Pakistan over talks with the Taliban. She said that the US had still not ‘found a way to work more closely with Pakistan’ to ensure talks with the Taliban.

Diplomatic sources told The Nation that the two uneasy allies were trying to find ways to improve ties and work as a team for peace talks with the Taliban. The sources said that Islamabad and Washington were making efforts to remove the misunderstandings and work as partners to achieve the goal of peace in Afghanistan.

Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammed Faisal said that Alice Wells will hold meeting with senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The aim would be to follow up on discussions between Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo with a view to further strengthen bilateral relations. Ambassador Wells will also call on the Finance Minister (Asad Umar),” he said, hinting Pakistan’s economic crises will also be discussed.

The option of talks with the Taliban was also discussed during a visit of the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to Pakistan on October 9. Sources said that the US was also ready to give militants a share in power in Afghanistan if they negotiate a peace deal.

The Taliban had announced that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was released after high-level negotiations. Baradar is one of four men, including Mullah Omar, who founded the Taliban movement in 1994. He served in several ke y positions when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. He was arrested from Karachi in 2010.

Last month, Pakistan and the US had agreed to work jointly to placate the Taliban and bring them on the talks table. Earlier, the US military made a decision to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against militants.

Zalmay Khalilzad had met Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua where the two sides decided to use their influence for regional peace, especially in Afghanistan.

In his meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said that Pakistan would continue to play its role for political solution of Afghan conflict.

Khalilzad had also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul to discuss possible peace talks with the Taliban, who have repeatedly rejected negotiation offers.

The US accuses Pakistan of providing safe havens to Taliban militants in its border regions with Afghanistan and using them as an arm of its foreign policy. Pakistan denies using proxies.

In September, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met several US officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York and Washington on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly session. It was in those meetings that Pakistan pledged to support negotiations with the Taliban to end Afghanistan’s 17-year war and in return asked the US to restore military aid.

Later, Pompeo said that the US looked forward to working with the new government of Pakistan in implementing its reform agenda. He appreciated Pakistan’s support for political reconciliation in Afghanistan and its efforts for peace in the neighbourhood.

Last week, Dr Faisal said that Pakistan would not bow down to the US pressure to ‘do more’ and will protect its sovereignty. He argued there was no question of any country applying pressure on Pakistan for something which “we believe is in our own national interest.”

“Our foreign policy is based on principles of peace within and peace without. In all our domestic and external pronouncements, we are guided only by Pakistan’s national interest and prosperity of people of Pakistan,” he said when asked to comment on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement that Pakistan needed to ‘do more’ to defeat the Taliban.

Pakistan and the US, he said, were engaged, along with other regional stakeholders, to pursue a political settlement in Afghanistan, which is Afghan-owned and Afghan-led.

Prior to her visit to Pakistan, Alice Wells said that the US wanted ‘positive and constructive’ relations with Pakistan. She acknowledged that Pakistan was an important country in South Asia and could play a great role in the region.

Wells said that the US had expectations from Pakistan. “We comply with South Asia’s policy of eradicating ‘non-state actors’ and want to eliminate terrorism and terrorist proxies,” she maintained.