Trade, bilateral relations and peace in Afghanistan
Pakistan has a close relation with its western neighbour, Afghanistan. Both share more than just a border; their culture, histories, ethnicity, language, traditions and customs, all have similarities, if not the same. The war in Afghanistan has put Pakistan in a tough spot. However, as the war is going to wind down, Pakistan and Afghanistan both have a chance at working together to bring peace and stability to a region that has become the epicentre of violence and terrorism. But this effort for peace needs international backers, or history is only going to repeat itself.
To this end, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague and Adviser to Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz at the Foreign Office met the other day and resolved to enhance their efforts and cooperation to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan, by complementing their support to the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process. While Pakistan has multidimensional relations with the UK, both agree that peace in the region favours not just the region, but the world at large as well. The British Secretary congratulated the new Pakistan government on a peaceful power transition and agreed to work jointly on all bilateral issues, cooperation in energy and the war against terror, as well as trade and economic ties. With Pakistan’s economy not being in a satisfactory state, trade and economic opportunities can certainly make up for at least a part of what it has lost in the last decade in the war on terror. Inclusion in the GPS Plus regime would be a good start for that matter, or enhancing the mutual trade volume from mere three billion dollars. These talks have served as a continuation of the talks held between Prime Ministers David Cameron and Nawaz Sharif earlier. Things have, however, not been so smooth between the war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past few months, but this seems to be changing as Mr Sartaj Aziz is travelling to Kabul to make arrangements for President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Pakistan, and to revive high level talks on the peace process. Mr Karzai’s agreeing to the visit is a sign of thawing of the ice that had covered the peace talks and rendered the whole exercise useless. This latest step can surely help in moving forward with the process and sifting out the problems that have stalled the much needed process.
Pakistan wants peace, Afghanistan wants peace, the whole world wants peace but wishes don’t just spring into reality. It takes more than that, a lot more than that actually. It is this, how to go about bringing this peace, that really is the key to achieving this lofty goal. However, on a closer look the issue appears to be within the reach of possibility; all it needs is political will, effort, time and leadership. And with the visit of the British Secretary and the proposed visit of President Karzai, things seem to be moving in the right direction though they could do well with some more momentum.
