ISLAMABAD - Key security matters, particularly strengthening of border management, Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan’s reconciliation process and enhancing economic cooperation will be the focus of talks when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai convene for consultations with their key aides in Kabul today.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be accompanied by his top foreign policy team, the troika at the Foreign Office which includes PM’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani. Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmud Khan Achakzai will also be travelling with the PM to meet the Afghan peace negotiators. Karzai had met the Pakhtun leader during his visit here in August and discussed with him the intra-Afghan reconciliation.
Sartaj Aziz has a good rapport with President Karzai and was instrumental in persuading him to visit Pakistan when relations between the two countries were in high strain back in July. Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq is also said to have played a major role in improving bilateral ties and defusing tensions with Kabul. He has been actively involved in the behind-the-scene intra-Afghan reconciliation efforts.
The Afghan peace negotiators believe PM’s visit would provide momentum to the most challenging peace and reconciliation process.
Both sides would finalise a roadmap for practical political reconciliation with the Taliban groups in Afghanistan to fast track the peace process in the war-torn country, according to diplomatic sources.
Pakistan side will specifically flag the issue of border management to check illegal crossings from both ends to check movement of militants and to end criminal activity, it is learnt. The issue is crucial for Pakistan due to unabated infiltration of militants from the Afghan side. Pakistan will raise this major concern and push Kabul to take concrete steps to stop it, sources said.
Given the scheduled withdrawal of bulk of US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, border management remains an overriding concern for Pakistan that faces the spectre of influx of up to three million more Afghan refugees.
The fate of the Afghanistan-US bilateral Security Agreement that would allow up to 15,000 US troops to stay beyond 2014 hangs in balance with President Karzai’s refusal to sign it before the year’s end.
A number of proposals including evolving a mechanism for border management command are likely to be discussed for proper travel documentation. Need for strengthening capacity of law enforcement agencies for effective monitoring and documentation at entry and exit points will be emphasised in this context. Pakistan has been advocating a mechanism to discourage cross-border movement of insurgents, militants and other destabilising elements. Pakistan believes that such a mechanism is critical for its peace and stability and that of the region at large.
However, Kabul has not been too keen to discuss this matter and has been dragging its feet on the issue paramount to Pakistan’s security.
This will be PM’s first bilateral visit to Afghanistan since he took office in June and it follows a string of confidence-building measures taken by Islamabad to facilitate the reconciliation process in Afghanistan. As part of these efforts Pakistan freed three more senior Afghan Taliban leaders earlier this week on a request by the broad-based Afghan government backed High Peace Council (HPC) that considers them key in peace negotiations and in convincing the Taliban leaders to directly engage with President Karzai or representatives of his government. The release came on the heels of the visit of HPC delegation led by its chairman Salahuddin Rabbani a week ago when it also met the prime minister. The delegation was here to meet with former top Taliban commander Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar who was released along with other Taliban leaders in September. Pakistan till now has released some 50 Afghan Taliban leaders as part of ongoing efforts to advance the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
This will be the Pakistani prime minister’s third meeting with President Karzai since July when he visited Islamabad. The two leaders last met in London on October 29 for a trilateral summit hosted by the British prime minister.
Nawaz Sharif’s government’s stated policy on Afghanistan is of non-interference, no favourites and continued support for an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. Clearly, Islamabad’s policy today is being backed by peace initiatives that have been acknowledged as well as appreciated by Kabul and thus considerably eased tensions between the two neighbouring states.
While no agreements are likely to be signed during the PM’s day-long trip to Kabul, it will end with a joint statement reflecting the ground covered in improving bilateral ties, collaboration in mega power and infrastructure projects which include Peshawar-Jalalabad motorway and Kunar dam.