Pakistani foreign minister reaffirms commitment to Afghan peace in meeting with Ghani

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday reiterated his country’s commitment to the Afghan peace process during a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani in Dushanbe.
Qureshi is currently visiting Tajikistan along with a team of Pakistani officials to attend the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process ministerial conference that started earlier in the day.
The conference is an initiative of the Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of Turkey, officially launched at a conference hosted in Istanbul on November 2, 2011.
“Pakistan will continue to support a peaceful, stable, united, democratic, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbors,” the foreign minister said in a Twitter post after his meeting with Ghani.
Qureshi also expressed optimism that the outcome of the conference would highlight the resolve of its participants to support the people of Afghanistan at such a future juncture in their history.
On sidelines of the moot, Qureshi also met with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif and expressed the hope that Afghan parties would seize the historic opportunity to work out an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned political settlement.
Qureshi also underlined the need to be cognizant of “spoilers” who did not wish to see the return of peace and stability in the region, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Referring to the Prime Minister’s (Imran Khan) initiative to develop joint border markets [between Pakistan and Iran], the two Foreign Ministers agreed on the need to expeditiously finalize the arrangement to facilitate legal trade and improve livelihood in the border region,” the FO statement read.
The Heart of Asia meet is taking place as a May 1 deadline, negotiated separately between the United States and Taliban, to withdraw all foreign forces from Afghanistan, looms.
“Highlighting the importance of the regional connectivity, the Foreign Minister said that durable process in Afghanistan would enhance opportunities for working together on infrastructure and energy connectivity between Central Asia and West Asia through Afghanistan,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement on Tuesday.
In a statement circulated on Sunday before the Pakistani delegation left for Dushanbe, the foreign office said Qureshi would highlight Pakistan’s positive contributions to the Afghan peace process and its support for Afghanistan’s development and connectivity within the regional framework.
The foreign minister also told his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu about progress achieved since the beginning of the US-Taliban Peace Agreement in 2019, while reiterating that the international community should not allow “spoilers” to ruin the gains made so far.
Washington, which agreed last year to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by May 1 after nearly two decades of war, is pressing for a peace deal to end fighting between the government and the Taliban. Talks between the Afghan sides in Qatar have stalled.
The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan with an iron fist from 1996 to 2001, are seeking to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and reimpose their rule.
US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been circulating a proposal which would replace the Kabul government with an interim administration. But Ghani has voiced vehement opposition to any solution that requires his government to step aside for unelected successors.

Pakistani foreign minister reaffirms commitment to Afghan peace in meeting with Ghani