ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: Afghanistan looks dissatisfied, if not disenchanted, with the trilateral process involving the United States and Pakistan that works for promoting peace and reconciliation with Afghan warring groups.

“I bring the message of urgency to the core group as the situation in Afghanistan requires fruits of cooperation,” Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawid Lodin said at a press briefing after the fourth round of trilateral talks in Islamabad on Tuesday along with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and US Special AfPak Envoy Marc Grossman.

Mr Lodin hinted that the working of the forum may have been hampered by the diverging interests of the members of the group as he noted that he wanted to see it (the trilateral group) as a “message of common purpose”.

The group incidentally had met for the first time a day after Osama bin Laden was killed in a unilateral US raid in Abbottabad, which put the Pak-US relations on a downward trajectory. The (Pak-US) bilateral ties haven’t been able to recover from that as yet and have instead gone from one low to another since then.

Some of the diplomats after the meeting, while talking to Dawn, agreed that the prevailing atmosphere of distrust was unhelpful for the functioning of the group, but disputed that the bilateral issues were impeding its progress.

“The process is maturing and it is too early to expect results,” a senior Pakistani official said.

Both Pakistani and US officials insist that they were keeping their bilateral problems out of the trilateral forum and for this purpose Mr Grossman, on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting, held a number of bilateral interactions with his Pakistani interlocutors to discuss many of those irritants.

But for Mr Lodin the trilateral process has to be sped up and results should be evident.

“We need to make our work more urgent and result-oriented,” he said as he drew a grim picture of the situation in his country, where according to him there has been a sharp spike in violence alongside the start of transition of security responsibilities from Nato/Isaf to Afghan authorities.

The Afghan deputy foreign minister said his country was “first and foremost interested in establishing peace”, while keeping reconciliation as the centrepiece of the whole exercise.

For this he wants the group to be more responsive to Afghanistan’s immediate challenges that are primarily concerned with ending violence there.

Mr Grossman, speaking on this occasion, said Pakistan and the US needed to identify shared objectives, which according to him were counter-terrorism, helping Afghanistan achieve peace, and promotion of economic vision for the region; and then to work together on the basis of those.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said Pakistan was constructively addressing the problems in ties with the US.

He described the trilateral process as “an important track of engagement” and said the US and Pakistan wanted to be helpful to Afghanistan in achieving peace.

AFP adds: Mr Grossman called for Pakistan to support reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan as foreign forces prepare to withdraw after ten years of war.

He highlighted “the unique role that Pakistan must play in supporting the reconciliation process”, as Afghan leaders and the international coalition consider talks with Taliban militants.

“Neighbours and near-neighbours of Afghanistan have this extremely important role to play supporting not just the Afghan-led reconciliation but the region’s economic vision as well,” said Grossman.