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Turkey to host trilateral foreign ministers meeting with Afghanistan and Pakistan
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Thursday that a trilateral meeting between foreign ministers from Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan will take place on Friday, April 23, in Istanbul to discuss the Afghan peace process.
According to a statement issued by Turkey’s foreign office, a “trilateral meeting between Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan will take place on 23 April 2021 in Istanbul.”
“Along with recent developments regarding the Afghan Peace Process, cooperation in the fields of security, energy, connectivity and irregular migration will be discussed during the Trilateral Meeting.
“On the margins of the meeting, H.E. Çavuşoğlu will also hold bilateral meetings with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts,” read the statement.
Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar meanwhile left Kabul on Thursday afternoon for Istanbul where he will attend the meeting, said the ministry.
According to the ministry, the meeting, due to be held tomorrow, will focus on ways to reach a political settlement in Afghanistan, the resumption of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, strengthening of regional consensus for supporting peace, Turkey and Pakistan’s role in this regard, and consolidating trilateral relations.
At the sidelines of this meeting, Atmar will also engage in bilateral meetings on strengthening political, economic, and security cooperation, read the statement.
This comes just a day after Turkey, Qatar and the United Nations announced the much-anticipated Istanbul Conference had been postponed.
The conference, that was to have been co-hosted by Turkey, Qatar and the UN, had been proposed by the United States as part of its efforts to secure a peace agreement between the Afghan Republic and the Taliban.
However, last week the Taliban said in response to US President Joe Biden’s announcement that troops would be out of the country by September 11, and not as originally agreed on May 1, that they would not attend any summit on peace until all troops had exited.
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Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
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Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
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Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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