Zalmay Rassoul, who is due on January 25, will hold detailed discussions with Pakistan’s top leadership on the current Afghan situation and strategy to deal with it. The visit is part of the both the countries’ efforts to put forward a joint strategy at the Pakistan, Afghanistan and US trilateral meeting convened in Washington to seek an end to the war that has entered its 10th year.
In recent weeks, Islamabad and Kabul have stepped up consultations on the endgame in Afghanistan. Since Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited Kabul last month, the two neighbours have held several top-level exchanges.
Recently, a 25-member delegation of the Afghan high council for peace visited Islamabad and met the country’s top political and military leadership to discuss plans aimed at making peace with the Taliban. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has just returned from a two-day visit to Kabul where he held talks with top Afghan leadership including President Hamid Karzai.
A government official said that the two countries are working hard to narrow down their differences on certain issues.
“The two countries through these exchanges have been able to considerably remove the mistrust,” said the official. He said the leadership of the two countries has realised that they need to agree on a minimum agenda for talks in Washington with the Obama administration.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan are the real stakeholders and victims of years of violence. We are trying to evolve a consensus on certain issues before the trilateral talks,” the official added.
The trilateral meeting, scheduled for the third week of February, will review the current Afghan strategy. The meeting among key players has assumed great significance since it comes months before the US-led Nato troops start pulling out of Afghanistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2011.
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