Sartaj Aziz begins Kabul visit to invite

 Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, started his day-long visit to Afghanistan to hold talks on bilateral matters, focusing on cooperation to push for peace process. 

Sartaj Aziz will meet President Hamid Karzai and to deliver him a formal invitation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry spokesman says.

Nawaz Sharif invited Mr Karzai to visit Pakistan when he rang him last month; however, the Afghan President had proposed the visit of Pakistani adviser to discuss agenda for his visit to make the trip result-oriented, the Karzai office had stated in a statement then.

The visit comes at a time when diplomatic tension is heightened between the two countries however Afghan officials are confident that the visit will help promote peace in the region.

The Pakistani adviser will begin his official engagements with talks with Afghan Foreign Minister, Zalami Rasoul and will later meet Afghan Commerce Minister, Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi.

He will meet President Karzai at ‘Iftar” that will also be attended by head of the High Peace Council, Salahuddin Rabbani and senior officials.

Afghan opposition parties were expecting a meeting with Sartaj Aziz, however, Pakistani diplomatic sources in Kabul and Afghan officials were not confirming any such meeting.

Section of the Afghan media has quoted Hussein Fazal Sancharaki, spokesman for the National Coalition of Afghanistan, as saying that a meeting of the coalition head, Dr Abdullah Abdullah is likely to be held with Sartaj Aziz.

The visit of the Pakistani Adviser is the first high-level exchange between the two countries after the assumption of office by the new government following the general elections in May.

The Foreign Ministry says that the Prime Minister has extended an invitation to the President of Afghanistan to visit Pakistan and Mr. Sartaj Aziz will be carrying the formal invitation for the visit. The other objective of the visit is to hold substantive preparations for the Summit-level meeting.

Tensions between the two uneasy neighbours heightened in recent months over certain issues, particularly the elusive peace, the opening Taliban office in Qatar and a reported power sharing concept by Pakistan between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The visit of Pakistani adviser is seen as an important to lessen the tensions and to push for the reconciliation process with the Taliban as it is favour of both countries to find out a political solution as the end game is fast approaching.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jul 21 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.