Karzai also hinted, at a joint news conference with visiting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, that outside agents may be working to destabilise the neighbours.
“Whatever the intention was of WikiLeaks, it has helped relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, so in that sense the Wikileaks was good for us,” Karzai said, without detailing how damaging allegations in the cables might have brought them together.
Karzai, who has recently been publicly critical of Western tactics in the fight against the Taliban, said ties with Islamabad were solid. “I can assure you that there is no trust deficit between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he told journalists.
Relations between the two countries have often been strained, particularly over links between Pakistan’s intelligence services and the Afghan Taliban, and the involvement of Pakistan-based militants in the Afghan insurgency.
Karzai said both countries may be struggling against malignant outside influences, questioning why US-led foreign forces who helped topple the Taliban in 2001 were now struggling to make progress against insurgents.
“We have seen that terrorist attacks have increased in Afghanistan,” he said, adding, “Is it that all the (violent) activities carried out in Afghanistan are coming from Pakistan, or a broader conspiracy is working to destabilise both Pakistan and Afghanistan?”
Gilani also said the two nations had to work together. “We are also suffering as Afghanistan is suffering. That means we should not go for a blame game; rather we should sit together and think about what should be the strategy,” he said.
Karzai brushed off cables from WikiLeaks detailing widespread corruption in Afghanistan and harsh personal criticism from within his own cabinet, saying they were empty lies designed to undermine him.
Future relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be based on “the fact that we are neighbours forever; with a shared history, culture and common traditions”, Prime Minister Gilani said.
Karzai reciprocated the sentiments expressed by the prime minister and said that he (Prime Minister Gilani) could influence the people of Afghanistan by two means; as the prime minister of a brotherly country who has taken initiatives to improve relations between the two countries and as a spiritual leaders of the Gilanis, he has a lot of followers in Afghanistan.
Gilani said, “Now there is an equal realisation that both the countries are equally suffering because of terrorism and there should be no blame game.”
Gilani and Karzai first met separately, followed by delegation-level talks and held in-depth talks aimed at enhancing cooperation in the war against terrorism and extremism and promoting collaboration on economy, trade and investment, building of energy corridors and improving road and rail links.
Both sides agreed that Pakistan and Afghanistan should strengthen their existing strategic partnership for creating economic growth and job opportunities by making investments in trans-regional projects.
Prime Minister Gilani assured President Karzai that Pakistan fully supported the reconciliation process with opposition groups to bring them into the political mainstream.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2010.
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