Islamabad will do everything to facilitate dialogue process between Taliban and Afghan govt, says Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi
Pakistan has called upon the international community to actively support the reconciliation process initiated by the national unity government of Afghanistan with the Taliban to bring about peace and stability in the country.
In her maiden address to the UN Security Council on the debate on Afghanistan Monday, Ambassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN, assured that Pakistan would do all that was possible to facilitate this process. She welcomed China’s closer engagement in promoting reconciliation and economic development in Afghanistan.
She said that the Afghan parties and the international community would need to exercise strategic patience and that those who may desire to disrupt the peace process should be discouraged. “They are on the wrong side of history,” she cautioned.
Lodhi said at a time when Afghanistan faced a defining moment, the strategic shift in Pakistan-Afghan ties have created an optimistic regional scenario.
She recalled the visit of President Ashraf Ghani to Islamabad last November. Calling the visit “historic”, she said, “President Ghani’s talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif succeeded in overcoming in 3 days the accumulated challenges of 13 years and produced a strategic shift in Pakistan-Afghan relations”.
