Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif will travel to Kabul on Sunday (today) amid efforts to revive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
In a statement released on Friday, the military says the COAS will meet with Afghanistan’s political and military leadership during the day-long visit.
Gen. Sharif was initially expected to visit Kabul before the Heart of Asia meeting in Islamabad on December 9, but tensions in the relationship prevented the visit from taking place.
Pakistan’s strategy for resumption of Afghan peace talks and the army chief’s upcoming visit to Kabul was discussed when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif presided over a meeting, which was attended by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, COAS Gen. Raheel Sharif, National Security Adviser retired Gen. Nasser Khan Janjua, ISI Chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry and other officials.
The move comes two weeks after a regional conference held in Islamabad called for the resumption of Afghan-Taliban peace negotiations.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and envoys from Washington and China also attended the conference.
The first-ever direct talks between the Taliban and Kabul were hosted by Pakistan in July but the process collapsed after Afghanistan announced that longtime Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died in a Pakistani hospital two years earlier.
