Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pakistan, Afghanistan set up joint mechanism


ISTANBUL (Agencies) ? Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of former Afghan leader and peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Turkish president said.
?One of the most important conclusions of this summit is the decision made by Pakistan and Afghanistan to establish a cooperation mechanism to illuminate the assassination of ex-Afghan President Rabbani,? Turkish President Abdullah Gul said after hosting a trilateral summit. ?This cooperation will help improve mutual trust between the two countries,? said Gul, adding intelligence services of both countries had ?open and honest? discussions on this cooperation, without eloborating further on the modalities of the mechanism.
?We were hurt badly by the assasination of Rabbani,? said Karzai after the closed-door talks. ?I hope this cooperation will produce results.?
President Zardari expressed pleasure with the agreement to cooperate saying that ?We want to be a responsible partner to bring peace to the region.?
The three presidents told a news conference that as an outcome of the summit, Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to evolve a cooperation mechanism for investigations into assassination of Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The leaders also discussed possibility of forming a commission at foreign ministers? level to identify problems confronting the region, preparing a programme for their resolution and ensuring follow up.
?We have also agreed to strengthen regional economic cooperation through this important trilateral process,? said President Zardari in his remarks at the press conference.
Three important agreements and memoranda of understanding were signed by Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan following the conclusion of trilateral summit hosted by Turkish President Abdullah Gul here on Tuesday. One agreement was Currency Swap between Pakistan and Turkey, which was signed by Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Yaseen Anwar and Governor Central Bank of Turkey Dr Erdem Basci on behalf of their respective countries. The important MoU on Conduct of Mutual Exercises and Training Courses between the militaries of Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan was signed by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani from Pakistan, General Necdet Ozal from Turkey and General Shah Muhammad Kairimi from Afghanistan.
The third agreement signed by three countries among their interior ministers was protocol between the three countries on training cooperation.
It was signed by Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Turkish Interior Minister Idress Naeem Shaheen and Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Muhammadi.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan urged Pakistan on Tuesday to ?move beyond words? and take concrete steps to curb militants which it said were a threat to both countries.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting in Istanbul that Afghanistan and Pakistan had been trying for several years to build trust ?but I think we have failed to see results on the ground.?
?So we are at a stage where we need to move beyond words, beyond expressions of commitments. We need to get to a stage where we actually do concrete things that will address our concerns with regards to our security,? he said.
Ludin said Islamabad?s cooperation was vital to the security of Afghanistan but also to Pakistan.
Tuesday, Karzai?s spokesman reiterated Afghan concerns that Pakistan was supporting the militants.
?President Karzai?s message is that Pakistan needs to end using radicalism as a tool in their politics,? said Emal Fayzi.
Asked about Pakistan?s initial response at the meeting, Ludin said: ?The test remains to be taken and that is to the extent that we can actually see concrete steps to help with the peace process.?
He also said Afghanistan wanted Pakistan to deal with the Haqqani network.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cancelled her trip because of the ill health of her mother.
The proposed Gul Train project took a leap forward Tuesday when the presidents of Pakistan and Turkey agreed upon further upgrading it so as to cover the distance between Ankara and Islamabad in just 11 days.
Farhatulalh Babar said the decision on Gul Train project was taken during a special briefing held soon after the delegation level talks between the two presidents.
It was also decided that after the successful up-gradation of the existing track and whetting the appetite of private entrepreneurs, the second phase of the project would also be launched.
The second phase would include laying of an entirely new railway track in Pakistan specially for superfast goods train running at over 150 kilometers per hour speed, he said.
Experts from the two countries will meet next month in Pakistan to take the project forward.
Farhat said it was also decided to convene an international conference in January 2012 on connectivity in Pakistan to raise awareness of the international private sector in the viability of the project and to attract entrepreneurs.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul proposed that the 11 day Ankara-Islamabad train proposal be finalised within six months.
President Gul further said that he would be ready to give some more time for finalising the 11-day proposal if the travel time could be further reduced to less than ten days between Ankara and Islamabad, Babar said.
Both countries vowed to further expand their strong, friendly and brotherly ties to play more active and pivotal role in peace, progress and stability in the region and for the welfare of the people of two countries. During the bilateral talks, starting with a one-on-one meeting between Zardari and Abdullah Gul, and later at the delegate-level, both the countries agreed to enhance their cooperation in trade, economic, education, communication, transportation and other fields.
Both the countries agreed to remove trade barriers, ease visa restrictions and take steps to increase bilateral trade to two billion dollars next years.
President Zardari urged that there is a need to fast track the conclusion of Pakistan-Turkey PTA. Both the president said it is an encouraging sign that private sectors are collaborating in the energy, construction, food processing and rubber industry.
They agreed that there should be further joint ventures and investment in key sectors such as infrastructure, engineering, energy, agriculture, telecommunications and mining.
President Zardari said Pakistan would welcome Turkish investment in hydro-power generation and alternate energy projects. Regarding banking sector, Farhat said both the countries agreed to open more branches of their banks in each other countries for the benefit of the business community.
The President said Pakistan is ready to implement ECO Trade Agreement (ECOTA) together with Turkey. Implementation of ECOTA is held up since last year awaiting submission of lists of tradable goods by some member countries.
Referring to cooperation in education, he said Pakistani universities are ready to establish ?Techno-Parks? in Pakistan in collaboration with the Turkish universities.
They also agreed to enter into a joint venture for locomotive manufacturing in Pakistan for the special cargo train service, Farhat said.
President Karzai ruled out on an early resumption of talks with the Taliban after a summit meeting with Pakistan. ?We cannot keep talking to suicide bombers, therefore we have stopped talking about talking to the Taliban until we have an address for the Taliban ... until that day we have said we will be talking to our brothers in Pakistan to find a solution to the problem that we have,? he said.
?We have been hurt badly, our desire for peace has been either misunderstood or misused and we have learnt a lesson from the manner in which we pursued the peace process,? Karzai said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/today-headlines/~3/ULSjNUtdzqw/Pakistan-Afghanistan--set-up-joint-mechanism

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