Pakistan hosting 5th ministerial moot for regional peace

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is “constructively” engaged with the regional processes for Afghanistan’s stabilisation and will host the fifth ministerial conference of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process towards the end of the year, it has been announced by the federal Minister for Defence Production and Science and Technology Rana Tanweer Hussain, while addressing a reception hosted by Afghan Ambassador Janan Mosazi Tuesday evening.
The event was arranged tocommemorate 96th anniversary of the Independence Day of Afghanistan. Rana Tanweer, who was the chief guest, said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have agreed that terrorism is a common enemy and we must fight it through common endeavours.
He said that bilateral military and intelligence cooperation has been intensified to achieve the purpose. Pakistan is also trying its utmost to facilitate in intra-Afghanistan reconciliation, the minister said.
Tanweer said that leadership of the two countries is convinced that a close, cooperative relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan serves the best interest of our two nations and helps advance the cause of peace, progress and development in the region.
The federal minister said that the reinvigorated political will on both sides has created the opportunity to forge constructive and forward-looking relationship. “Consistent with the vision of our leadership, the two sides are comprehensively engaged in upgrading cooperation in all fields including trade, economics, defence, security, counter-terrorism, border management, energy and infrastructure connectivity, Afghanistan’s reconstruction and rehabilitation, parliamentary exchanges and cultural, educational and sports links,” he added.
Ambassador Janan Mosazi in his welcome address condemned the attack on MNA Abdul Rashid Godail in Karachi and added that the Parliaments and parliamentarians should not be targeted as they represent the people’s will. He said, “We

fortunately have a consensus between our two countries: if there is no peace in Afghanistan, there will not be peace in Pakistan and in much of the rest of the region.”
Janan said, “We have been fighting this senseless war not just on our own behalf but also on behalf of our region. We therefore now need the entire region to work with us to put an end to the ongoing war, and to arrest the further morphing and wider spread of a much more dangerous, deadly strain of extremist violence in the region, namely Daesh.”
He said the ongoing violence and the war imposed on Afghanistan must come to an end. “We realise, perhaps better than anyone else, that the role of the Afghan government and people in this effort is paramount. It is for that precise reason that through a national dialogue, including last year’s elections, we have created a strong national consensus among all the political forces for negotiations and reconciliation with the armed opposition, namely the Taliban,” he said.
The ambassador was of the view that Afghanistan’s strategic partnerships with regional and international allies is based on the shared objectives of peace, security and development in Afghanistan as well as a sincere joint fight against terrorism and extremism in the region and joint efforts towards the necessary and urgent goal of broader and deeper regional economic integration.
He said policy of his government is clear. “We keep our doors open for negotiations and reconciliation to those Afghans who are willing to make peace. The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will respond to each and every act of terrorism with full force backed by the unshakable national resolve and unity of the Afghan people,” he added.