Pledge to continue joint fight against terrorism: Military officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan, US meet
By Raja Asghar
ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Top military officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US-led coalition in Afghanistan vowed on Wednesday to carry on a joint fight against terrorism as Kabul and Islamabad moved to a higher level of strategic dialogue.
The officials and diplomatic representatives of the three sides reviewed the Afghan situation at a meeting in Rawalpindi of a tripartite commission overseeing the military campaign in Afghanistan.
The session began with a series of briefings on ‘enhanced security measures’ being taken by Afghanistan, Pakistan and the coalition in advance of Afghan elections on September 18 for a national assembly and provincial councils, an official statement issued after the 12th meeting of the commission said.
“The parties noted recent improvements in cooperation and information-sharing and reaffirmed their commitment to enduring operations against Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups,” it added.
The meeting was the first in which Afghanistan and Pakistan were represented at four-star general level and followed a controversy about the level of cooperation between the two sides in fighting Al-Qaeda and resurgent Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The statement said the parties agreed during their plenary session that the participation of Afghan National Army’s Chief of General Staff Gen Bismillah Khan and Pakistan’s Vice-Chief of Army Staff Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat ‘signified an important step to enhancing strategic dialogue and understanding between Afghanistan and Pakistan’.
It said the two generals and Lt-Gen Karl Eikenberry, commander of combined forces in Afghanistan, also met privately after the plenary session, which decided to hold next meeting of the commission in October.
Strains had appeared between Kabul and Islamabad in recent weeks after Afghan officials alleged that Taliban fighters were entering Afghanistan from Pakistan, which denied the charges but detained some former senior Taliban figures hiding in the country.
Pakistani authorities also moved to speed up repatriation of Afghan refugees but the move also brought objections from Afghanistan, which was not ready to receive its nationals in large numbers.
Pakistan has deployed about 70,000 troops along the Afghan border to stop militants fleeing from Afghanistan and trace out those hiding in the tribal region. It plans to send 4,000 more troops there before the Afghan elections.
Delegates at Wednesday’s meeting examined ‘ways to deepen their countries’ military-to-military relationship in the interest of long-term regional stability,’ the statement said.
“All parties noted the significance of the first bilateral Afghan-Pakistani staff exchanges which took place on July 14 in Kabul and August 9 in Islamabad,” it said.
The statement said the commission session was significant also because it was attended by representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty’s International Security Assistance Force as observers. “All parties welcomed the observers and look forward to extending the role of the Nato force for stability in Afghanistan.”
