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DUSHANBE: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan reiterated on Sunday their resolve to promote and strengthen trade and economic cooperation in the region and to jointly combat terrorism, militancy and drug trafficking.
This was agreed during a meeting attended by Presidents Asif Ali Zardari, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan.
The leaders, who attended Nauroz celebrations hosted by Tajikistan, discussed ways of strengthening trade and economic cooperation.
According to president’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, President Zardari stressed the need for enhancing regional cooperation to curb the nexus of drug trafficking and militancy, a major impediment in trade and economic development in the region.
The president said he had taken up the issue at the international level and would continue to pursue it. “We must work together.”
President Zardari said Pakistan was committed to completing work on the Iran-Pakistan and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline projects.
“I look forward to working with you on all issues of mutual interest,” he said.
President Zardari said non-state actors wanted to destabilise Afghanistan but Pakistan was committed to peace in the region, particularly in the neighbouring country. He said a stable Afghanistan was in the interest of Pakistan.
He said that in the post-2014 geostrategic scenario after drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan, closer cooperation among the four countries in all fields, particularly in defence, security and intelligence sharing would assume greater significance.
The leaders were of the unanimous view that terrorism and militancy posed a serious threat to peace, security and socio-economic development of the region and needed to be tackled jointly.
They were of the view that strong bonds among the countries needed to be translated into closer cooperation in trade, communication, transportation, energy, infrastructure and other fields.
Meanwhile, US special envoy Marc Grossman held a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin.
Mr Grossman said the meeting focused on President Karzai’s “very successful” visit to Islamabad last month, which was followed by the Afghan leader’s invitation to Taliban to open direct talks with his government.
The Taliban broke off contacts with the United States in mid-March because of a row over prisoner swap.
But Mr Grossman sounded an optimistic note and said that “we now find ourselves in a happy position of building on our momentum”.
Speaking at the Nauroz ceremony attended by about 15,000 people, the Iranian president called upon regional powers to unite against ‘aggression’. President Ahmadinejad said celebrations of the Iranian New Year showed that life improved only after a ‘hard winter’ when friends joined forces.
“Nauroz represents a battle between the forces of light and those of darkness, the fight against injustice. Nauroz is traditionally viewed as a new day without poverty, aggression, instability, crime, discrimination, occupation and the abasement of human dignity,” he said.
“All people have the right to live their life in dignity.”
President Zardari and the Afghan leader made no reference in their speeches to the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, or the US.—APP/AFP
