- Asks international community to support Afghan-led processes
The eighth Pakistan-Turkey-Afghanistan trilateral summit has asked the international community to contribute to the efforts aiming at supporting Afghan-led and Afghan-owned processes, including those concentrating on further enhancing the Afghan National Security Forces.
In a joint statement the leaders of the three countries, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai emphasised the pivotal importance of a political settlement within the framework of the Afghan Constitution, to ensure durable peace in Afghanistan and called upon the Afghan Taliban to join the peace process.
The joint statement reiterated the importance of the ongoing electoral process in Afghanistan in securing a smooth and successful political transition in the country, and underlined in this regard the necessity of a suitable security environment.
It stressed the importance of enhanced cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan as immediate neighbours and the need to taking practical steps in supporting the peace and reconciliation process and in promoting the necessary security environment during the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections.
The statement underlined the necessity of enhancing close coordination between the brotherly countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan for effective border management and reiterated the common resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
It welcomed Pakistan’s decision to extend the stay of registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan until December 31 2015, while calling upon the international community to assist the two countries in the timely and honorable return of Afghan refugees and their sustainable reintegration in Afghanistan, the statement took note of the growing people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and Afghanistan and encouraged that every effort be made to further develop such contacts welcomed efforts of Pakistan and Afghanistan to build a broader relationship with strengthened trade and economic relations and acknowledged the development cooperation of Turkey and Pakistan in reconstruction and stabilisation of Afghanistan.
The summit underscored that the international community should continue to support Afghanistan’s socio-economic development beyond 2014.