"You cannot sign SPA (Strategic Partnership Agreement), [(unless)] there is full trust and confidence between the two countries. I think, we are reaching that grade now...we are going to look to that and we hope that to sign it as soon as possible," Dr Rassoul said while responding to a query during a joint news conference along with Foreign Minister Khar following their meeting.
Afghanistan has recently signed SPAs with India and the US, but it is yet to do the same in the case of Pakistan. President Karzai recently made it conditional, saying "Pakistan must stop the export of terrorism, suicide bombers, interference and all the other things which result in killings and disturbing the Afghan people's tranquillity and destabilising Afghanistan," before holding discussions on singing SPA.
During the talks, the two also agreed to a joint conference of Afghan and Pakistani Ulema to take place in Kabul by the end of January 2013, release of more Taliban prisoners, facilitating contacts and urging the Taliban to renounce ties to al Qaida, besides agreeing to operationalize a Joint Commission to address the prisoners issue as announced during the visit of President Karzai to Islamabad in June 2011.
Responding to another question about cross-border incursions and incidents of shelling, the Afghan Foreign Minister said that the fight against terrorism was a challenge for both Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Any incident from our side into Pakistan and the same from Pakistan into Afghanistan should be taken very seriously and be defeated...Afghanistan will do everything it can to fight these people," he said. He said his country would never allow its soil to be used against Pakistan, adding that it would do everything possible to avoid the damage to Pakistan. He said the incidents of shelling into Pakistan from Afghan side had reduced significantly recently and both the countries need and to work together to sort out other issues.
He said both the countries need and to work together to unlock the potential of honest and result-oriented co-operation based on mutual interest and respect. Khar, while commenting on the issue said that they had very extensive discussions on the issue of cross-border incursions and shelling, adding that both the sides had to deal with both the issues. She said that Pakistan had a very strong institutional mechanism to ensure that unnecessary shelling never took place and Islamabad was committed to that. She, however, added that the two sides should be very mindful about the issue of incursions and Afghan foreign Minister had confirmed to her that they would look into it as a common challenge.
She also rejected the notion that the two sides were in some sort of a blame-game, saying "these are complexities on the ground which is thrash to both the countries and the people...so it's not us versus them and them versus us and a blame-game... What is a threat to Pakistan must be considered a threat to Afghanistan and we in Pakistan certainly consider any threat to Afghanistan as a threat to Pakistan".
To another query, Khar also brushed aside any impression that Pakistan was competing with others while playing its role in bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan or to get some importance "that's clearly neither our desire nor policy".
She stated in categorical terms that Pakistan did not need anybody else to tell it as to how seriously to deal with threat of terrorism. "Let no one convince you that Pakistan is not very clear in its fight against terrorism because we are the country which is suffering on daily basis (in this war)," she stated while rejecting the perception that Pakistan, by not releasing high ranking Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was not wholeheartedly supporting the reconciliation process.
She further mentioned that Pakistan was the one which had suffered a lot and offered sacrifices than any other country in the war on terror. Khar said that the High Peace Council in its recent visit to Pakistan forwarded four requests-release of the Afghan Taliban, safe passage to those Taliban leaders currently on the UN sanction list, holding of an Ulema conference and the possibility of facilitation of contacts. On each one of those, "we achieved a mutual success," she added.
She said the visit of Afghan Foreign Minister marked the initiation of negotiations on the strategic partnership between the two countries. She expressed Pakistan's keenness to build strong bilateral relations with Afghanistan on the basis of mutual respect and sovereign equality. "It is Pakistan's strong desire to further strengthen cultural and religious affinities existing between the two neighbouring countries," she added.
Referring to the frequent visits of Pakistani leaders to Kabul, she said this reflected the emphasis and importance that Pakistan attached to its relations with Afghanistan. She said the frequent visits had helped both the countries understand each other's perspective. "We have started seeing the dividends of those visits," she added.
She said that Pakistan would continue to play the role of a facilitator in the peace process, adding that Pakistan would pursue the track which the Afghans chose for themselves. According to her, both the countries face common challenges of terrorism and narcotics and collective efforts are required to deal with these challenges.
Referring to the trade potential between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Khar said the bilateral trade currently stood at 2.5 billion dollars, adding that there was a great potential to further increase this volume. She hoped that extension of Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) to Tajikistan and then to other Central Asian countries would help exploit the strategic position of Afghanistan to enhance regional trade. "It will certainly be a win-win situation for both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the region as a whole," she added.
Emphasising upon greater people-to-people contacts, she Pakistan was an aid recipient but Afghanistan was the only country where Pakistan was extending assistance. Currently, she said that projects worth $300 million were being implemented in Afghanistan. Besides, Pakistan was offering seven thousand scholarships to the Afghans, she added.
Zalmai Rasool said peace in Afghanistan was a prerequisite for peace and stability in Pakistan and the region. He said Pakistan had a crucial role to play in the success of reconciliation process. He said that his country wanted the Afghan Taliban to return to their homeland and contribute to the peace, progress and development of the country, adding that there was a complete consensus on the peace process in Afghanistan. This was the reason that women had also been part of this process, he added.
In the joint statement issued following the meeting, the two sides re-affirmed the enduring ties of friendship and amity between the two brotherly countries and their peoples, grounded in history, culture and religion, the two sides reiterated their commitment to steer bilateral relations in accordance with the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence and mutual respect, and agreed to work together towards enhanced bilateral engagement for deepening interaction in diverse fields.
It stated that the two Foreign Ministers held in-depth consultations on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest with special focus on the situation in Afghanistan, peace and reconciliation process, co-operation in political and economic fields and security related issues.
The two sides expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the recent visit to Pakistan by the High Peace Council delegation led by its Chairman Salahuddin Rabbani. The Afghan side thanked Pakistan for releasing prisoners in response to the HPC request. Pakistan reiterated its support to an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.
The two sides emphasised the importance of an intra-Afghan inclusive dialogue and consequent political settlement for durable peace in Afghanistan. Pakistan re-affirmed that it fully supported and stood by the Afghan nation as they determine their own future. In this context, both sides agreed to take action on the elements of the Joint Statement issued during HPC's visit.
The two sides emphasised the need to enhance co-operation in the fields of security, development, transit, trade, economic and investment linkages, infra-structure and energy connectivity and people to people contacts. They reaffirmed their commitment to jointly overcome the common challenges of terrorism and extremism.
The two sides discussed the issues of cross-border incursions and shelling and agreed to have an institutionalised mechanism to address the issue. In this regard, they also agreed to have closer co-ordination between the two countries.
While expressing satisfaction at the current volume of annual bilateral trade ($2.5 billion), the two countries agreed to take facilitative steps to further enhance bilateral trade and achieve the target of $5 billion annual trade by 2015.
Expressing satisfaction that the third meeting of Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Co-ordination Authority (APTTCA) held in Islamabad on 11-12 October 2012 made significant progress on issues of operational nature pertaining to APTTA, the two Foreign Ministers called on APTTCA to work expeditiously to address the remaining issues.
Recognising the need of jointly pursuing trade and transit agreements with Central Asian states, the two sides agreed that as a first step a trilateral transit and trade agreement would be negotiated with Tajikistan, to be extended to other countries as appropriate and mutually determined. The Afghan side acknowledged the contribution of Prime Minister of Pakistan's scheme of 2000 scholarships in facilitating higher education opportunities for Afghan students in Pakistani universities and thanked Pakistan for announcing 1000 additional scholarships for Afghan students at the Tokyo Conference.
Both sides agreed to work together for phased, dignified and voluntary return of Afghan refugees and stressed the need for creating 'pull factors' for this purpose. Afghanistan thanked Pakistan for hosting the largest number of refugees in the world for more than three decades.
The two sides also agreed to enter into a bilateral Visa Abolition Agreement for holders of diplomatic passports to facilitate visa free travel for the diplomats of the two countries. Realising that a SPA will further deepen the bilateral relations between the two countries, both sides agreed to initiate negotiations for signing of SPA.