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WASHINGTON: The United States has not kept Pakistan in the dark on its efforts to seek a negotiated settlement to the Afghanistan, says Marc Grossman.
At a Washington forum on prospects for peace in Afghanistan, Mr Grossman also said that a new economic bloc that connects South and Central Asia – with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the centre – can play a key role in bringing peace to the region.
“I have many faults. But not keeping the government of Pakistan or the government of Afghanistan fully informed on what we were doing on the reconciliation side is not one of them,” he told a gathering at the US Institute of Peace.
“So I recognise that’s what people say, but I just want to tell you that I work very hard to make sure that people are neither in the dark or excluded,” said the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In his lecture, and later during the Q and A session, Mr Grossman pointed out that Pakistan had to have a central role in any solution to the Afghan problem.
When one of the discussants, Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, noted that the Afghan issue as well as Islamabad’s relations with Washington had gotten entangled in Pakistan’s domestic politics, Mr Grossman urged the Pakistani government to disentangle itself.
“First, it’s the place to start where there’s a domestic issue in Pakistan, and they need to work on this issue. And that’s really true,” Mr Grossman said.
The central point of his talk, although, was linking Central and South Asian economies for bringing peace to Afghanistan and to the entire region.
“Let’s not forget also the economic aspects of this … which is to say that going forward to 2014 and after 2014, there’s also got to be a regional economic vision about connecting Central Asian economies and South Asian economies with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the centre,” he said.
The United States plans to withdraw all its combat troops from Afghanistan in three years and on Tuesday Mr Grossman met a high-level Afghan delegation in Washington to negotiate rules for US military activity in Afghanistan after 2014.
But in his talk at the USIP, Mr Grossman said that connecting the two economies will also play a very important role in success for these two transitions in 2014.
Mr Grossman pointed out that in 2011, the United States helped Pakistan and Afghanistan negotiate a transit trade agreement.
“What’s the biggest thing going between India and Pakistan? It’s trade, as you say. That number is going up. Why is that? Because people see exactly what you see, which is Central Asian economies connected with South Asian economies,” he observed.
“There’s advantage there, and Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the centre of that.”
George E. Moose, Vice Chairman, USIP, also highlighted Pakistan’s role in bringing peace to Afghanistan.
“As is abundantly evident to all concerned, Pakistan is also a critical element in any calculation of the prospects for peace in Afghanistan,” he said.— Anwar Iqbal
