Trilateral summit: In grateful letter to Gilani, Karzai calls Pakistan, Afghanistan ‘twins’

Afghan president says Islamabad meeting offered a great opportunity to pursue a bilateral dialogue as well.

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has written a letter to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, hailing the third Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan Trilateral Summit that Pakistan recently hosted in Islamabad.

“It is essential that we sustain a brotherly and equitable collaboration,” Karzai said in the letter, delivered on Friday. “The trilateral summit in Islamabad offered yet another opportunity to pursue our bilateral dialogue.”

The summit, which took place from February 16 to 18, was attended by Karzai as well as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the backdrop of Pakistan’s straining ties with Afghanistan after border incursions and slow progress on a decision about the Iran-Pakistan pipeline project which is vehemently opposed by the US.

Karzai wrote that he had often stated privately and publicly that Afghanistan and Pakistan are twins, which is why it was even more essential for them to sustain their relations. “I have a strong sense of shared determination to ensure peace, security and prosperity for both the countries,” he said, assuring his government’s full cooperation in realising the mutual commitments that were made in Islamabad.

President Karzai also said he was grateful for the warm reception and brotherly hospitality extended to him during his visit to Pakistan.