ISLAMABAD: The last few months have witnessed a tremendous improvement in bilateral ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as seen in the signing of their landmark framework, Afghanistan-Pakistan Action-Plan-for-Peace-and-Solidarity (APAPPS) said.
This bilateral agreement has been a result of the long-awaited willingness from both sides to work together and seek solutions for issues facing both countries. Under the new framework, both sides have agreed on a broad-based and structured engagement on all issues of mutual interest and decided to operationalise the five working groups; political/diplomatic, military, intelligence, refugees, and the working group for economic issues.
These views were expressed by former Ambassador Seema Ilahi Baloch, while speaking to youth from Pakistan and Afghanistan here at the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) on Thursday.
She said that things on the ground and the nature of engagement could dramatically change and improve further if both sides hold on to these new guiding principles for long.
Seema, who has been part of Beyond Boundaries – a Pakistan-Afghanistan Track-II dialogue initiative of CRSS and its Afghan counterpart, stated that she witnessed an unprecedented optimism in Kabul in her meetings with Afghan Chief Executive Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and other Afghan officials, last month as part of Beyond Boundaries’ delegation.
The rethink in Pakistan and Afghanistan relations has started not only because Pakistan wants it, but because there is a convergence of interests of the US, the National Unity Government of Afghanistan, the Taliban, Pakistan, China, as well as Russia, against the ISIS in the region, she said.
At the same time, the successful ceasefire agreed upon between the Afghan government and the Taliban has been another positive development in the direction towards peace in addition to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent statements claiming US’ willingness to not only work with the Taliban, but even the possibility of pulling out troops.
While these are all the signs of optimism, there are many obstacles that still remain before the Afghan conflict that has killed a record number of civilians alone this year can end.
Over the course of the past years, it is only becoming more obvious that Pakistan and Afghanistan cannot live in isolation.
She said they can only sustain the convergence of regional interests by putting geo-economics first, before geopolitics, which implies that economic enhancement and connectivity, as also stressed upon by President Ghani and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in there in last April, should lead the bilateral relations between the two countries.