Pakistan NSA Moeed Yusuf to visit Kabul over border fencing issue

Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf would visit Afghanistan amid tensions along the border between the two countries.

Pakistani media reported that a meeting of the Afghanistan Inter-Ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC), chaired by Pakistani National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser took the decision.

“A senior delegation of Pakistani officials, headed by the NSA, is scheduled to visit Afghanistan soon for further engagement with the Afghan government on all assistance-related prospects,” Pakistani National Assembly said.

Pakistan, so far, has not announced the date for Yusuf’s visit. A Pakistani official, however, has told Dawn newspaper that the visit would probably take place from January 17-18.

“We will finalize the delegation in a couple of days and then decide the date,” the official said quoted by Dawn.

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan were raised after the Afghan border forces broke sections of the new border fence being erected by Pakistan along the Durand Line this week.

The two countries, however, emphasized resolving the issue through diplomatic channels.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi stated in a tweet that the Islamic Emirate hopes to resolve the problem through “understanding, dialogue, and good neighborliness”, and that they will discuss the issue with Pakistan.

The Pakistani military, meanwhile, said Wednesday that the fencing project along the Durand Line with Afghanistan will continue despite issues raised in recent weeks.

Pakistan began fencing off the border with Afghanistan in summer 2017. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said on Wednesday that 94% of the border fence has been completed and that work on the remaining section continues.

“We are totally focused, and under the western border management regime, the work that is underway will be completed sometime soon,” Iftikhar said.