KABUL (SW): Richard Olson, United States’ Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan has said that the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process is crucial for bringing Pakistan and Afghanistan closer.
Speaking at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Sunday, Olson said that stability in the region was important for the U.S. He said that the countries participating in the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process’s next meeting are trying their best to bring peace, stability and economic growth for the region.
He said the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process provides a good opportunity for Afghanistan to play key role for cooperation in the region. He said this cooperation would prove fundamental in the fight against terrorism.
About the revival of ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan for the peace talks, he said that an Afghan-led peace talks can ensure a good future for the region.
The HAIP’s next meeting would take place in Islamabad later this week in which President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani is likely to take part. Ghani would visit Pakistan on the backdrop of rather cold ties between the two countries in the wake of brazen militant attacks in Kabul in August.
Olson said that without the peace talks, it would be impossible to end the endemic war and violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He said that the U.S.’s combat mission in Afghanistan has ended but his country was committed to assist Afghanistan in various sectors, particularly training and equipping the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
It is said that the NATO mission in Afghanistan under the leadership of the U.S. is extended till the end of 2016 and till then some 13 thousand NATO troops would remain in Afghanistan to train and equip the ANSF.
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