Small steps to peace

APAPPS have lasted a full year is an encouraging sign that Pakistan-Afghanistan ties are moving in the right direction

The Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister, Idrees Zaman, with a high-level delegation in tow, has arrived in Islamabad for the first review of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS). The meeting will review the progress made under the plan over the past year, a parting gift from the previous government. It comes at a time of great flux in the Afghan border region with militancy rearing its head again amid mounting pressures on sending refugees back and devising a more effective system for cross-border trade.

The five working groups under the plan cover diplomatic, military and economic cooperation along with refugee affairs. The primary purpose of the APAPPS was to enhance bilateral cooperation and build trust, and it will be important to during the review meeting to see what progress has been made on that front in a difficult year for bilateral ties with the western neighbour.

Some diplomatic faux pas from Prime Minister Imran Khan has not led to breaking the ice, but recent developments where Afghan President Ashraf Ghani accepted an invitation to visit Islamabad later this month, provide some hope. In that context, the APAPPS can help prepare ground and set a more comprehensive and robust agenda for that visit. Having such hopes for a working group of this level could be a little too much but such are the stakes. Pakistan can ill afford another angry neighbour and sometimes, for rapprochement to work, one has to be magnanimous to forgive and move on to what is most important while redressing genuine grievances of the other side.

Furthermore, the US is pressing hard to expedite the Afghan peace process with some progress made with Afghan Taliban representatives in Doha. That the APAPPS have lasted a full year is an encouraging sign that finally the Pakistan-Afghanistan ties are moving in the right direction. It is hoped that they will now help set a conducive ground for Ghani’s visit.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2019.

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