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Published 18 Jan, 2012 12:12am

Polish envoy fears unrest if Nato pulls out of Afghanistan

PESHAWAR, Jan 17: After withdrawal of the US-led Nato forces, Afghan security forces won't be able to maintain security in the troubled country single-handedly, said Polish ambassador to Pakistan Dr Andrzej Ananicz on Tuesday.

Dr Andrzej told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the international community would continue helping out Afghanistan in reconstruction and rehabilitation operations.

'We want a peaceful and stable Afghanistan as part of Nato-led coalition states,' he said.

Accompanied by first secretary of Polish embassy in Islamabad Piotr Adamkiewicz, the envoy said Poland as member of the European Union had made a holistic plan for rebuilding Afghanistan along modern lines and better life of locals.

He favoured the US dialogue with the Taliban and said there was a need to find political solution to Afghan crisis.'The Taliban can't be ignored.

However, their intentions need to be assessed,' he said.

Dr Andrzej said though Afghan situation was very precarious, the power of Al Qaeda network in the region had tremendously weakened. He said the process of stability and progress had been initiated in Afghanistan.

'Progress is visible in education, health and infrastructural development sectors, but much needs to be done for better stability and peace in Afghanistan,' he said.

The ambassador said since they were not capable to tackle security situation in the war-torn country alone after withdrawal of Nato-led forces, Afghan forces should be well equipped and trained to do the job.

He said Poland and Pakistan had developed a five years strategy to work in trade, commerce, strategic, humanitarian, security and other areas.

'We should learn from previous mistakes and need to move forward for bet-terment of both nations,' he said.

Dr Andrzej said Poland wanted longterm engagement with Pakistan to increase bilateral cooperation in different sectors of economy and that it would help Pakistan access the European Union market.

'Pakistan is much prosperous and peaceful compared with what it was a few years ago,' he said, adding that Poland had contributed a lot to Pakistan's development.

The Polish ambassador said European states wanted to increase trade with Pakistan and that a lot of work had been done to give perennial and preferential access to Pakistani products to the European Union market.

'Around 27 Pakistani products will have zero-rated duties in the EU market.

However, there is a need that Pakistani producers keep the quality of their products high in line with international standards,' he said. He warned that European Union won't accept substandard products from Pakistan.

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