President Karzai to visit Pakistan in mid-Feb

Foreign Office spokesperson says Afghan president will attend trilateral summit with Pakistani and Iranian presidents.

ISLAMABAD:

As Pakistan and Afghanistan warm up to each other following almost four months of tensions sparked by the assassination of top peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to visit Islamabad in February.

Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit said President Karzai will attend a trilateral summit with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian diplomats confirmed Ahmadinejad will be participating in the summit.

An Afghan diplomat told The Express Tribune that Karzai’s visit is expected in the third week of February.

Afghanistan had not accepted a proposal from Iran’s president that the summit be held in October to bring President Karzai and President Zardari to the negotiation table to ease tensions between their countries.

Basit said President Karzai will meet his Pakistani counterpart at the trilateral summit, the schedule for which will be finalised soon.

However, an Afghan diplomat said the summit is likely to be held in the third week of February. He also confirmed President Karzai will be visiting Pakistan to represent Afghanistan at the summit.

Basit said a wide range of issues, with a special focus on the Afghan reconciliation process, will be discussed during Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s visit to Kabul on Wednesday.

When asked about the agenda of Khar’s visit, he said that both sides will discuss the Afghan reconciliation process. She will hold official talks with Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rasoul and will call on President Hamid Karzai in her day-long visit.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1^st, 2012.