Afghan president wants to build 'real and honest cooperation and friendship' with Pakistan
Reporting from Kabul, the newspaper said the visit was aimed at reseting ties with Pakistan and was described as a multipronged effort to revive moribund peace talks with the Taliban.
Nazifullah Salarzai, the Afghan president's spokesperson, said the Afghan leader would visit Pakistan this week for an official meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
While officials are completing the agenda, Salarzai added, the talks will focus on bolstering economic ties and security cooperation.
"Afghanistan wants to have real and honest cooperation and friendship with this neighbouring country," Salarzai said.
"As the president has said, we have this window of opportunity. We want this window to be transformed into a door, then into a corridor, and then into a highway," he added.
Ghani, who was inaugurated in September, faces many challenges on the foreign-policy front, but managing the relationship with his country’s powerful neighbour -with which it shares a porous, 1,500-mile-long border- promises to be one of his biggest tests.
Under the presidency of Ghani's predecessor Hamid Karzai, ties between the two were particularly strained. Karzai routinely accused Pakistan of providing support to the Taliban.
Pakistani, Afghan and British leaders early last year put in place a timeline for establishing a peace deal with the Taliban. However, those efforts were in vain as accusations over cross-border shelling were exchanged between Kabul and Islamabad.
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@Raj - USA:
I had many Pakistani friends I called brothers in the U.S. once. But thanks to the relentless efforts by their country to harm my people. I don't associate with them anymore.
Afghanistan and Pakistan face common challenges in the form of terrorism. Both nations continue to make common sacrifices in order to negate the common threat of terrorism. It only makes sense to form a healthy working relationship.
Ali Khan Digital Engagement Team, USCENTCOM
@Rex Minor: @Candid1:
If you know the Afghans well, you will know that when they say "they want real and honest cooperation and friendship”, they mean it. Afghans do not use words like "real" or "honest", unless they mean it and it comes from their heart. If they want to be deceitful or evasive they will talk of common religion. Pakistan should realize it and work sincerely and truthfully and all problems, be it refugee or Durand Line, it will be solved. Try to cheat them, they would sense it faster than you think and it will take another 20 years to bring any trust.
Similarly, try to divide them by talking of Pashtun, Tijak, Hazara, Shia, Sunni, etc., it will backfire. Even if you talk of muslim brotherhood or common religion, they know what you are trying to do.
I have nearly 100 Afghan friends here in US and they have been not just my friends but they have been our family friends for over 20 years now. So, I know them well.
@candid1 Frankly Afghanistan has a better future than Pakistan. In the international community Afghanistan gets sympathy and support. And respect. The same cannot be said of Pakistan. You may want to shed your superiority complex.
@Khan Gul:
Your have said it all, neither the Afghan nor the Pakistan Government exercise any control in the Pashtun land but only the Pashtuns do who number more than 60 million. Both Governments better negotiate with them before they start their march towards the warm waters.
Rex Minor
Thank you Mr Ghani. Thats what we want also.
We want nothing but peace and prosperity in Afghanistan. We wish our Afghan brothers well.
Our main concerns are:
You do not allow India to use your country for its proxy war against Pakistan
The narco/weapons exports from Afghanistan are curtailed
The c.3m Afghans now in pakistan are humanely and honourably repatriated to Afghanistan
Dear Candid1,
1) Afghanistan has already said that it is ready to accept the durand line as a working boundary provided Pakistan cooperates in actualling "completing" the durand line.
2) No formal complaint against the boundary has been made in any international forum, including the United Nations. So if they had any problems, they would have done so long ago.
3) They say that the final decision of the durand line, however, rests with the people (pashtuns) on both sides of the border. If they want to remove it, neither the Afghan government, nor the Pakistani government can do anything about it.
4) Afghan government has frequently called for repatriation of refugees living in Pakistan and elsewhere. They are cooperating with repatriation efforts with Pakistan as well as international organizations. If the people don't abide to calls, they cannot do much.
5) The Indian sponsored "Baloch" insurgents, as Pakistan wants to believe, are not that much of a problem as the "Pakistani" bred taleban insurgents, whom Pakistan was training to deploy for trouble in other countries.
COAS just paid them a visit recently and probably painted a picture of bread and butter to Ashraf Ghani. Ashraf Ghani is painting a bread and butter story back to Pakistan. Let's hope it really turns out to be bread and butter on both sides unless "Candid1" people like you interfere and ruin everything.
@Bahawal Khan: An ambition project on the part of the Afghan Boss; both parties are untrustworthy, the one by tradition and the other by performance.
Rex Minor
Good news ! Pakistan should offer Afghanistan link in Pak-China economic cooridor, Military Training, Textile Industrial development, University education. There is no point of fighting, we should be more open hearted in response.
seems Afghan's govt is satisfyingly sensible than ours.
Afghanistan can have real and hinest friendship with Pakistan if it:
Accepts the border between the countries; Takes back the millions of its citizens living in Pakistan for more than 30 years; and Prevents India from using Afghanistan to conduct terrorism in Pakistan.These three acts are within the sole and exclusive control of Afghanistan, will Ghani do them?