Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa in Kabul for high-level military meeting
February 13, 2018
RAWALPINDI: Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa arrived in Kabul on Tuesday to attend the Chief of Defence (CHOD) Conference, stated a press release issued by the Pakistan Army's media wing, ISPR.
The army chief is expected to meet US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel, Resolute Support Mission commander General John Nicholson and the Afghan army chief at the conference.
On Saturday, the second round of Pak-Afghan talks on peace and security issues ended without any concrete result. The first round was held earlier in Kabul on February 3.
The Islamabad talks were led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, who was visiting Pakistan.
The Pakistan Foreign Office had summed up the talks in a short tweet:
Earlier, on February 3, a top-level delegation of Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua, reached Kabul to attend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Working Group meeting which worked on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).
Pakistan proposed five joint working groups, focusing on ensuring a comprehensive engagement for countering terrorism, intelligence sharing, military, economy, trade and transit interaction, refugee repatriation and connectivity.
A high-level Afghan delegation had also visited Pakistan prior to the Joint Working Group meeting to discuss important issues of mutual interest. The delegation, comprising the Afghan interior minister and the chief of National Directorate of Security, met with Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi.
Shedding light on the meeting, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had stressed the need to resolve Pak-Afghan issues bilaterally and said Pakistan “stands with its Afghan brothers in this hour of grief," referring to the recent spate of bomb-and-gun attacks in Kabul which claimed nearly 200 lives.
However, once the two-member delegation returned to Afghanistan, the air of hostility resumed with accusations against Pakistan.
