Former foreign minister of Pakistan Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said that Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Pakistan would produce positive results.
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Swaraj said it was the collective duty of “all of us to ensure that the forces of terrorism and extremism do not find sanctuaries and safe havens” in any name, form or manifestation.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stressed his commitment to “an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process” – a reference to the talks, hosted by Pakistan, that foundered in July after news leaked that Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead for two years. Foreign Secretaries of both the countries to meet later, Swaraj said while addressing a joint media conference with Pakistans Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz. “The refugee issue is a common issue, like other issues that confront us”, he said.
Ashraf Ghani made the pointed comments during a “Heart of Asia” gathering of more than 31 countries, which was also notable for attracting the foreign minister of India – which is also deeply distrustful of Pakistan’s relations with militant groups. “India will extend its cooperation at a pace Pakistan is comfortable with… but let us focus on Afghanistan for now”, she said.
Cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan is essential to ending the insurgency by the Afghan Taliban, who have bases on both sides of the countries’ porous border. Inagurating the conference, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for an intensification of efforts in order to move forward from a conceptual domain to tangible landmarks for the implementation of concrete ideas, projects and visions in the heart of Asia.
“Afghanistan is threatened most by terrorism and not tribal or ethnic rivalries”, she said, adding that the Afghan security forces need the continued support of the global community.
Relations between the two neighbours received a hit after Ghani blamed Pakistan of supporting the Afghan Taliban for carrying out suicide blasts in Kabul.
“The massive cross-border movement of refugees constitutes a security risk”, Sharif said.
On the occasion she also invited the member states to attend the sixth Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process ministerial meeting in India which is scheduled in 2016.
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Afghanistan’s enduring security crisis was highlighted once again on the eve of Ghani’s arrival in Islamabad when dozens were killed during a Taliban attack on Kandahar airport, a major civilian and military hub in the country’s south.
