Meeting of the three Ks in Brussels

All parties resolve to ‘do their homework’

Pakistan and its neighbour to the west, Afghanistan, haven’t had a relation that can be described as warm, much less ideal, in the past few weeks. A trust deficit has put a wedge between the two nations. However, with the US and NATO forces preparing to leave Afghanistan by the end of next year, rocky relations between the two would benefit no one. In this context, the tripartite meeting held at Brussels between the three Ks – Kerry, Karzai and Kayani – could certainly pave the way for a relation based on trust, instead of the blame game that goes on unabatedly.

Any tension between the two is going to hurt them both, for it’s the militants that would cash in on the rift and thwart attempts at peace talks that are so important for the region and the world at large. The Karzai government blames Islamabad of building a new gate on the border between the two nations. Pakistan issues a strong denial, and says that it is merely a renovation and repairs work at an already present one. The rift somehow escalated and the Afghan government severed military ties with Pakistan and held protests in its country. While ideally there should be no such issues between the two neighbours who have so much to lose if peace doesn’t return to the region. However, dwelling on one point or the other won’t solve them; they have to sit together and thrash out their differences before their tiff can cause trouble to more than just their egos. And, that’s exactly what US Secretary of State, John Kerry, seems to have succeeded in accomplishing. And the two leaders, Hamid Karzai and Gen Ashfaq Kayani, both appeared relaxed in their body language after their three-hour meeting in Brussels.

Their meeting, on the face of it, hasn’t produced any result though what the three came out of it with is better than nothing at all. As John Kerry said, “We’re not going to raise expectations or promise results that can’t be delivered… We’re all going to go home and do our homework.” This is good news as it means peace stands a chance and that Pakistan and Afghanistan have come to some sort of an understanding that it is up to them, and in their interests, to have peaceful relations and focus their energies in solving much bigger problems than a gate at the border. Both of them can influence the Taliban to come to the negotiating table to discuss peace, a direction now the US agrees with too. The sooner they agree to do so, the better the chances to weed out terrorism from the region, thus eliminating a threat to world peace as well.