Pakistani Army Chief meets Afghan leaders to revive talks with Taliban
Islamabad: Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief General Raheel Sharif yesterday held wide-ranging talks with Afghanistan’s top leadership on ways to revive stalled peace talks with the Taliban and agreed to hold a quadrilateral meeting between Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US early next month on a comprehensive road map for ‘meaningful peace’.
General Sharif, who arrived in Kabul met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other civil as well as military leaders during day-long trip.
Pakistan Army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa in a series of tweets, said that both sides discussed coordinated counter-terrorism operations on respective sides and way forward for Afghan peace process.
He said the meetings reviewed the way forward in pushing forward the peace process in Afghanistan and agreed to continue work under the quadrilateral framework.
The first round of quadrilateral meeting will be held in 1st week of January to work out comprehensive road map for meaningful peace, Bajwa said without mentioning its venue.
Earlier, he said that Gen Sharif had gone to Kabul “with all the sincerity and optimism for better border management and peace process in Afghanistan.”
His visit takes place after Ghani visited Islamabad this month for the Heart of Asia conference and met senior Pakistani leaders including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, leading to thaw in tense bilateral ties.
