Karzai visits Pakistan amid hectic activities in Kabul
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In wake of hectic diplomatic activities in Kabul a few days back, Afghan President Hamid Karzai flew in Islamabad Wednesday and had extensive consultation with the Pakistan leadership to narrow differences on some crucial security issues, including training of Afghan forces and repatriation of important Taliban commanders.
Since the United States announced the plan of withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan from next year, focus has been shifted to strengthening, training and equipping the afghan forces to deal with militancy.
The matter was discussed when U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Pakistan's Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Kabul. Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in the Afghan capital giving a strong message against U.S. interference in the region.
Diplomatic circles in Pakistan's capital attached high importance to Karzai's visit in the context of the U.S. plan to launch new operations in Afghanistan, with support of the Pakistani and Afghan military.
Karzai was received warmly in Pakistan with presentation of 21 gun salutes. Soon after his arrival he went to Aiwan-e-Sadr ( President House) and met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The two leaders who showed sentimental relations in the past two years expressed the resolve to remove misunderstandings of the past and to jointly move forward in the fight against militancy.
The two sides focused on the need for greater harmony between them and agreed to remove "misunderstandings of the past".
On Thursday President Karzai met with Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani after signing a Memorandum of Understanding and addressed a joint press conference in Islamabad, he said Afghanistan and Pakistan are twin brothers, adding that " without cooperation from Pakistan, there could be no stability".
"We are fighting against terrorism. I brought message from people of Afghanistan to the people of Pakistan," he said.
No country has ever showed more hospitality to Afghanistan than Pakistan, the Afghan president said adding that the two countries discussed various affairs including agreements made on transit trade.
Karzai is now also accepting Pakistan's stance regarding tackling militancy that military use alone is no solution to peace. The Indian factor was also discussed and Karzai very clearly said that Afghanistan's soil would never be allowed to use against Pakistan. Leadership of the two countries are agreeing over regional solution of the Afghan problem and Karzai went to the extent saying that its soil would even not be used against Iran.
Meanwhile, Karzai's proposal for Peace Jirga has been accepted by his Pakistani counterpart. And both sides agreed to extend cooperation to each other for improved relations.
During his visit, Karzai also met with Pakistan's army chief and discussed security and operations in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The two countries agreed on a comprehensive cooperation in various fields. They agreed to cooperate in the areas of communication, trade and investment, education, capacity building of institutions, agriculture and environment, energy, people to people contact in addition to war against militants.
However, some ambiguities were also prevailing during the meetings between Afghan and Pakistani leaderships. Karzai had no clear answer when he was asked about Pakistan's offer to train its security forces saying his defense minister will consider the proposal. It is important to mention that Pakistan has objection over the Indian-trained Afghan army on its border. Pakistani officials were also not very clear in response to the handing-over of Afghan Taliban No. 2 Mulvi Abdul Ghani Baradar, recently arrested in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi and still in the custody of Pakistan, to Afghanistan. No final decision regarding transit trade came to forth in the meetings.
That is why that the visit has confused some analysts about the success of Afghan officials visit. Marina Baabar, an expert of foreign affairs and a well-seasoned journalist, while talking to Xinhua, said, "We cannot say yes or no about the success of the visit, things are not in black and white in certain decisions." She said that Karzai also said that it is not a good time to talk about return of refugees. When asked about Pakistani detainees in Afghanistan he said that he would raise the issue with Americans, Baabar said.
Analyst Imtiaz Gul told Xinhua that the success of Karzai's visit and future of Pak-Afghan relations will depend on the activities henceforth and Pakistan's support to reintegration of Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, almost all the analysts agree that the Afghan officials' visit and their struggle to understand Pakistan's position and seek help of Pakistan was a positive step. It would improve relations in future and with the course of time both sides would more intensely depend on each other as Afghanistan is a gateway to mineral-rich Central Asia and for Afghanistan peace and economic development is not possible without Pakistan's help, they indicated.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have been becoming closer since the establishment of the new Pakistani government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) two years ago.
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