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Pakistan, Afghanistan Agree to Enhance Security Cooperation

Posted on: Monday, 25 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have agreed to enhance security cooperation, open more flights and start building a rail line between the two countries. Pakistan also pledged to give Afghanistan 100m dollars in aid, Prime Minister Aziz said. He described his one-to-one talks with Afghan President Karzai as "broad, deep and vibrating. The following is the text of report by Behroz Khan headlined: "PM pledges 100m-dollar grant for Kabul; Shaukat, Karzai agree to boost anti-terror tie-up, increase flights, construct; Chaman-Spin Boldak railway line" by Pakistani newspaper The News website on 25 July

Kabul: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday [24 July] held one- on-one meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai before the announcement of 100m dollars additional grant for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, enhancing air and overland links between the two countries and reiterating his commitment to have more coordination and cooperation in the ongoing war on terror.

Addressing a joint press conference after a two-hour meeting with the Afghan president, Prime Minister Shaukat said: "What we have agreed is to have seamless cooperation in the security area, enhance it substantially and whatever elements are engaged in creating this level of activity or terrorism in either country, we can have common approaches to tackle it." As the people of both the countries want to live in peace, he added.

The prime minister was on a daylong visit to the Afghan capital. Shaukat said he had a broad and vibrating interaction with President Hamid Karzai on issues concerning the two neighbourly countries. "Pakistan and Afghanistan share a common heritage, have a deep sense of togetherness in history and a share destiny," he said, adding that both countries were striving for peace, raising the standards of living of the people, fighting terrorism and extremism, building of our economies and building a better future for the people.

"Our discussion today has been broad, deep and vibrating. The president (Karzai) and I spent almost two hours alone discussing the issues of common interest," Shaukat said. There were official level talks between the two sides followed by parleys by the joint economic commissions.

The prime minister said Pakistan believes that a strong, stable, vibrant and prosperous Afghanistan is good for its people, neighbours and for the region. He said both sides have agreed to have seamless cooperation, be it in diplomacy, be it in security matters, be it economic issues and all other subjects, which exist between the two countries.

"This seamless cooperation will take our relations, which are already strong, which do face challenges at times, to greater heights and better sense of togetherness," the prime minister said, urging that Pakistan has always felt about the further development of Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan had announced a 100m-dollar grant when President Karzai took charge to build infrastructure and have joint projects. The road project is moving ahead, so are the schools and hospitals and "today we are exchanging the keys for many ambulances, books and school bags." The prime minister handed over keys of ambulances to the Afghan authorities.

"I feel privileged to announce another 100m dollars of projects, which will be driven by the needs of the Afghan government and the people. You will decide and these are grants which we will give for common projects so that the brothers and sisters can see the improvement and a better future for themselves," he announced.

He said both sides have agreed to increase flights between Kabul and Peshawar and Kabul and Quetta, which will have two flights a week.

"Pakistan has offered and the President (Karzai) has accepted immediate start of a construction of a railway line between Chaman to Spin Boldak," the prime minister said, adding the construction of the railways line would be a historic link, which should go on to Kandahar and other parts of the country and could be linked up with other railway systems in Afghanistan.

He said that this was a first step and goods arriving in Karachi and eventually to Gwadar would be transported by train to reach Spin Boldak in a very short time.

The two governments, the prime minister said, have signed an investment protection treaty, which will create an atmosphere for investors to invest in both the countries. Already, Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan was host to three and half million Afghan refugees and many of them were actually economic migrants, they invest a lot, they are active in business.

"We welcome them because we are open as an economy and every body is welcomed to participate in Pakistan's economic activities," Aziz said adding that Pakistan was looking to increase cooperation in many other areas.

He said the trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan is about 100m dollars a month, which would be slightly acceding as was discussed between him and Karzai last year setting the target of about a million dollars a year. He said that trade would bring prosperity to both the countries and would be a win-win for the traders and people of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"We did talk about the role of the Muslim Ummah and the role of the OIC and talked about the UN and other issues of common interests between the two countries," he said.

In reply to a question about the trading of accusations between the countries on dealing with terrorism, President Hamid Karzai said he has discussed the issue in detail with the prime minister because his country was deeply interested in having close and friendly relations with Pakistan.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan are like twins joint somewhere in the body. And any one of them who gets hurt will definitely hurt the other. The question of terrorism is that if it affects Afghanistan it would also have consequences for Pakistan," Karzai said, adding that the issue has been discussed and it was agreed to further build the confidence between the two countries.

"We have suffered in the past at the hands of terrorism, attacking our mosques, our schools, our clergy, our candidates for elections and our women and children. The same has happened in Pakistan," he said. Shaukat Aziz to a question said that terrorism knows no borders and if there is trouble in Afghanistan so it affects Pakistan and vice versa.

About Pakistan's role in enhancing security during the Afghan parliamentary elections, the prime minister said that the share objective was that whatever Pakistan could do to impact the security situation in Afghanistan, it would be done. Pakistan had never had as many security forces on the border between the two countries and the fact was that close to 80,000 troops have been deployed, backed by helicopters ad other military arsenal to prevent flow of people who are undesirable on either side.

"We have assured the president that like we did before, we will make more extra efforts so that the security of Afghanistan is not jeopardized in any way," he said.

The prime minister was accompanied by Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, PML's Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain and Khalilur Rehman and Owais Ahmad Ghani, governors of NWFP and Baluchistan respectively.

The prime minister was accorded warm welcome by Hamid Karzai government on his arrival at Kabul's Khauja Rawash Airport and a guard of honour was presented to him at the Presidential Palace, which was attended by the Afghan President, Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah and others.

Karzai in his welcome remarks said, "We are very happy today to have our brother, the prime minister of Pakistan among us. He is not only a good friend of Afghanistan and good prime minister for Pakistan but also a good scholar and a good manager of worldwide institutions."

He said that both the leaders discussed today in a very friendly manner various issues and the friendship between the two countries in a fact that millions of our refugees are still housed in Pakistan and that the people of Pakistan looked after them very well.

"The two nations have the only way to go forward and that is the way of friendship and cooperation and hoped that leaders of both the countries will be facilitators and promoters of these good relations."

APP adds: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also called on former Afghan King Zahir Shah and discussed Pakistan-Afghanistan ties and measures being taken to make the relationship more beneficial and strong.

The prime minister said, "We have common challenges of security and there is a need of further cooperation to face these." He said Pakistan was proud to be a part of reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and said the two countries could enhance cooperation in economic and other fields to promote bilateral relations.

He said there was also a need to face challenges posed by the Western media against Islam and called for initiating joint efforts to remove the misperceptions and promote interfaith harmony. He said Afghanistan could play a very important role in projecting the true image of Islam.

Former King Zahir Shah said Afghanistan needed to emulate the example of Pakistan to progress in many areas. He particularly noted the country's economic turnaround and complimented Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for pursuing a prudent economic policy, leading to unprecedented high growth rates.

Recalling his last visit to Pakistan the king said the country felt like a home to him and added he had great regard for its people. The prime minister extended the king an invitation to visit Pakistan and conveyed best wishes and greetings from President Pervez Musharraf.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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