Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Ishaq Dar, has once again emphasized that stability in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest.
Speaking at a conference in New York, he stressed the importance of continued engagement with Afghanistan and said that the recent agreements with Kabul were made with the special authorization of Pakistan’s Prime Minister.
Dar said, “Both Pakistan and Uzbekistan have their own railway lines. If these two lines are connected via Kharlachi, covering a distance of approximately 640 kilometers, we will be connected to the entire world. Negotiations with our Afghan friends on this matter took time. Other countries attempted to route this key regional railway connection through Uzbekistan–Herat–Iran, but we made extensive efforts to realize this project through our preferred route.”
Referring to the warming relations between Kabul and Islamabad, Dar once again called on the interim Afghan government to ensure that Afghan territory is not used against Pakistan.
“I visited there with the full permission of the Prime Minister. We held meetings and a joint press conference with all members of the Afghan cabinet on trade, economy, politics, migration, and other issues. My Afghan counterpart and I announced the points we had agreed upon, and all of them have been implemented so far. Our only request is: please don’t allow your soil to be used against Pakistan, just as we do not allow ours to be used against you,” he added.
Sayed Akbar Sial Wardak, a political analyst, commented, “The focus on security issues shows that their own internal security situation is unstable. This suggests they are more concerned with their own interests and problems than those of Afghanistan.”
In recent days, Kabul has hosted both Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministers, and the acting Afghan foreign minister is expected to visit Islamabad within the next week.
It remains to be seen whether these visits will lead to the resolution of ongoing challenges between Kabul and Islamabad.
