Monitoring Desk
KABUL: As the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan are preparing to meet in the first round of trilateral talks to be held in Beijing on Tuesday on promotion of Pak-Afghan relations, some Afghan analysts and politicians believe that Pakistan may not sincerely cooperate with the Afghan peace.
According to Chinese foreign ministry, the three countries will have” in-depth discussions on three topics: mutual political trust and reconciliation, development cooperation and connectivity, and security cooperation and counter-terrorism.” Ustad Latif Nazari, a Kabul based political analyst, said the three countries should speak openly in the trilateral dialogue and Pakistan should accept that insecurity in Afghanistan is no more their choice.
“China has close relations with Pakistan and also has huge influence on them. So the Afghan government should convince China to increase pressure on Pakistan,” he told media persons. Waga Safi, member of parliament, said Pakistan always make promises in such meetings but fails to meet it, therefore, China should make Pakistan bound to fulfill their promises.
She said the trilateral talks would only succeed in brining Pakistan and Afghanistan closer when the decisions and pledges of the meeting are fulfilled. Being a good friend and neighbor of Afghanistan, China should persuade Pakistan to cooperation with Afghanistan’s stability for the sake of stability of the region, he said. Husain Sajadi, another political expert, suggested that the Afghan side should take up the issues in the trilateral meeting which they could not raise on other forums.
China and Pakistan have a massive economic project, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and Afghanistan should warn China that the continuation of insecurity in the region would pose threat to the CPEC, he said. “Undoubtedly, Pakistan is behind these threats. So, the trilateral meeting should be used an opportunity, not a symbolic, like the previous meetings,” he said.
The presidents of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan had agreed on the sideline of SCO summit to hold trilateral talks on Pak-Afghan relations. Similarly, Chinese prime minister had offered on the sideline of SCO summit that his country was ready to mediate between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
