ISLAMABAD, April 19: Pakistan, the United States and Afghanistan Tripartite Commission has given Nato-ISAF full member status of the commission.

American, Pakistani and Afghan military commanders held talks on Wednesday on the fight against militants.

The meeting in Rawalpindi was the 16th gathering of the Tripartite Commission set up after Afghanistan’s Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, but it has come at a tense time in relations between the neighbours.

“The delegates discussed border security and agreed to further enhance communication and coordination in this regard, with particular emphasis on expanding their cross-border coordination along the Afghan-Pakistan border areas,” a statement issued after the meeting said.

The officials highlighted the “increasingly positive progress of communications and information sharing” between Afghanistan, Pakistan, coalition forces and the NATO-led international security force, it said.

Pakistan invited an Afghan army contingent to join an upcoming exercise between the US and Pakistan in May, it said.

At the last meeting, in Kabul in February, officials from the three countries vowed to exchange more intelligence on Taliban loyalists, Al Qaeda militants and other groups engaged in almost daily attacks in Afghanistan.

General Ahsan Saleem Hyat, Vice Chief of Army Staff, represented Pakistan, while Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, led the US negotiating team. General Bismullah Khan, Chief of the General Staff in Afghanistan’s National Army, represented Kabul.

NATO-ISAF (international security assistance force) attended the meeting as observers.—Agencies