DUSHANBE:
President Asif Ali Zardari invited regional leaders on Monday to throttle terrorist financing and discourage militancy in one single blow by adopting a common strategy against drug trafficking.
The invitation was extended during President Zardari’s separate meetings with Afghan and Iranian counterparts Hamid Karzai and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The president also broached bilateral, regional and global issues during these meetings.
The three leaders have gathered here in the Tajik capital for the fifth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA-V).
According to presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar, President Zardari made a strong pitch for closer interaction between regional states in an effort to effectively address the issue of drug trafficking.
The spokesperson said the meetings between the leaders were held in a very cordial atmosphere, allowing a frank exchange on views on bilateral and other matters of mutual interest, including peace in the region.
Islamabad and Kabul should also work together to extend Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) to the Central Asian states, he said. The president also drew Kabul’s attention to Islamabad’s request for access through the Wakhan corridor to Tajikistan.
He also voiced hope that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s appeal to all sections of the Afghan society to engage in intra-Afghan dialogue with Kabul would receive a positive response. “Consistent positive messaging from both sides is beneficial for our countries,” he remarked. He formally invited President Karzai to attend the quadrilateral summit in Islamabad later this year.
‘Strengthen border
controls’
In his meeting with the Iranian leader, President Zardari underscored the need for revisiting and strengthening the existing border control regime between the two countries.
Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said President Zardari had assured his Iranian counterpart that Islamabad would not allow any terrorist outfit to use its territory against Iran.
President Zardari said the two countries needed to prioritise economic and trade relations and should also speed up implementation of bilateral projects, including the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. He stressed that more efforts needed to be made to achieve the target of $10 billion bilateral trade. He also stressed the need to work expeditiously on the Preferred Trade Agreement so that they may later move on to the Free Trade Agreement. President Zardari said Tehran and Islamabad also needed to coordinate closely on the regional and international issues of mutual concern.
President Zardari on Monday said his country was working hard to further increase its economic relations, tourism and people-to-people contacts. “Our revised transit trade agreement with Afghanistan is functional since last year and we would like to extend it to Central Asian countries,” the president said. “We firmly believe that regional issues need to be resolved through regional solutions,” he remarked.
US walkout
A US delegation walked out of a conference in Tajikistan Monday during a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lambasting US policy on Afghanistan as the source of all the nation’s troubles.
Ahmadinejad launched his new tirade against Washington at the meeting in Dushanbe attended by leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbours as well as a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake.
“The cause of all the ills in Afghanistan is the presence on Afghan soil of Nato forces and above all those of the United States,” the Iranian president said. As the Iranian president was giving his speech, Blake pointedly led the US delegation out of the conference hall.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2012.
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