Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF sign a coordination agreement
While the US troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the process of withdrawal has already begun. In September, some 33,000 extra US soldiers sent to Afghanistan as a part of the surge more than three years ago left the country. Canada has already ended its combat mission in Afghanistan and Netherlands is about to follow suit. After 10 years of its battlefield role in the country, France, the fifth largest contributor of troops, has also withdrawn its combat troops. Despite attempts by Leon Panetta to slap a positive gloss on the post surge operation, with claims that it had succeeded in “reversing the Taliban momentum”, the pot continues to boil in Afghanistan. Like the air shifting from one part of the inflated balloon to the other as it is squeezed, the Taliban have reduced deadly attacks in Helmand in the south and stepped them up in the Eastern provinces. This year has seen some of the most daring and devastating attacks inside Kabul and adjoining provinces. The US and allies have expressed hope that the newly trained Afghan police and troops would be able to withstand the Taliban offensives after the allied force’s withdrawal. This is however widely challenged by knowledgeable Afghan experts and international agencies like Red Cross.
Pakistan is going to be deeply affected by the developments following the withdrawal in 2014. A peaceful Afghanistan is a key to the economic development and prosperity of Pakistan as it would open up the energy-cum-trade corridor between Central Asia and South Asia passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Economic interdependence between the countries would act as a formidable incentive for maintaining peace and amity as happened in the war torn Europe at the end of WW ll. But in case Afghanistan was again to revert to another period of civil war, the entire region would badly suffer from the consequences. Pakistan would be the worst affected country. Terrorists in tribal areas, who are now being eliminated by Pakistan army, would enjoy strategic cover in Afghanistan from where they would launch attacks inside Pakistan. The civil war in the neigbouring country would displace millions who due to the porous border and ethnic and tribal affiliations would take shelter as before in Pakistan.
It was a timely step on the part of the military chiefs of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF to sign a coordination agreement on Monday. This would help stop cross-border activity by the militants who continue to launch terrorist attacks on civilians and security personnel on both sides. What is needed now is to plan coordinated operations of the hammer and anvil type to be followed by mopping up operations.
