Pakistan PM expresses desire to strengthen ties with Afghanistan

Arab News Pakistan
Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal (right), the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan, meets Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (Photo courtesy the Afghan ambassador’s twitter account)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has called for increased cooperation with Afghanistan.
It came in a meeting with Afghan ambassador Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal on March 21, during which the pair discussed relations between the nations and efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“The prime minister underlined the importance of institutional interaction and high-level exchanges to enhance bilateral trade, economic cooperation and the transit of Afghan goods through Pakistan,” Abassi’s office said.
He also “reiterated Pakistan’s support for the efforts toward Afghan reconciliation under an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.”
The Afghan ambassador welcomed the prime minister’s comments, and said that “President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan leadership also desire meaningful engagement with Pakistan in all areas of interaction,” according the PM’s office.
On March 17, Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua met Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and his Afghan counterpart Haneef Atmar in Kabul.
During that meeting, Ghani extended an official invitation for Abbasi to visit Kabul for government-to-government talks. This was Abbasi’s first meeting with the Afghan envoy since then.
The prime minister also took the opportunity to condemn a suicide-bomb attack earlier in the day at a shrine in Kabul that killed at least 29 people. He expressed Pakistan’s solidarity with the government and people of Afghanistan in the face of terrorism.
This was reiterated by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, which said it “strongly condemns today’s reprehensible suicide attack close to Ali Abad hospital and Kabul University. We are grieved at the loss of precious and innocent lives in this brutal attack of terrorism.”
It added: “Pakistan reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of terrorism in all forms and manifestations and expresses solidarity with the government and people of Afghanistan in their fight against the menace of terrorism.”