ISLAMABAD: Afghan Ambas­sador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal has said that bilateral ties have improved after an increase in high-level contacts between the two countries.

In an interview to Voice of America on Friday, Mr Zakhilwal said that a delegation led by the speaker of Afghan­istan’s National Assembly would be visiting Pakistan later this month.

Elaborating on the bonhomie, the diplomat referred to the recent visit by a top-level Afghan military team to Pakistan as well as an Afghan delegation’s participation in a regional meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organisation held in Islamabad this week.

At his weekly briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that in order to improve Pak-Afghan relations, Islamabad had suggested a ‘Pakistan-Afghanistan Action Plan for Solidarity’ to Kabul.

Responding to this, Ambassador Zakhilwal said that Kabul had received the Pakistani proposal and the Afghan government was working on it to incorporate its suggestions in it aimed at improving the project.

“The government will soon inform Pakistan about it,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017