Hopes rise for Ghani’s Islamabad visit

Ghani likely to visit Pakistan to co-inaugurate a ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process on Dec 8

ISLAMABAD:

An Afghan security team arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to prepare the ground for a possible visit of President Ashraf Ghani to Pakistan where he is expected to co-inaugurate a ministerial meeting of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process on December 8, officials and sources said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had met President Ghani on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last week and invited the Afghan leader to the conference in Islamabad.



An 11-member Afghan team, including deputy chief of presidential protocol Bilal Ahmadzai, discussed arrangements for Ghani’s possible visit with Pakistani officials at the foreign ministry, sources told The Express Tribune.

However, Afghan Foreign Minister Syed Salahuddain Rabbani ducked a question about President Ghani’s Islamabad trip.

“I can’t say anything about the president’s visit as we still have three days [to decide],” Rabbani told a questioner at a news conference in Kabul. He said the conference will discuss “regional cooperation, and terrorism, which is a common threat”.



A foreign ministry official in Islamabad has also said he ‘expects’ the Afghan president to visit Pakistan. Some Afghan sources said an announcement was likely to be made on Monday.

The US Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Olson, met President Ghani in Kabul on Sunday and later said the Islamabad conference would provide an opportunity to Afghanistan and Pakistan to ease tensions and work together to combat terrorism.

“We think this is an excellent opportunity for Afghanistan to play a lead role in developing regional cooperation, particularly in the field of counterterrorism,” Olson said in Kabul during his first visit as the US special envoy.

“Stability in this region is crucial and the upcoming Heart of Asia ministerial (conference) is an example of efforts to deepen regional integration to lead to greater peace, security and economic growth in the area,” he said.



Some friendly countries, including China, have urged the Afghan president to attend the conference. Ghani had attended the last ministerial conference in Beijing in October last year.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said on Thursday the programme of the conference “envisages inauguration of the conference jointly by the prime minister of Pakistan and the president of Afghanistan. However, confirmation of the Afghan president’s visit is still awaited.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th,  2015.