Chairman High Council for National Reconciliation Dr Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday lauded Pakistan’s efforts for ensuring peace in Afghanistan, saying the region’s future was linked with working towards a joint vision of prosperity.
Speaking at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) here, Dr Abdullah said Afghanistan would focus on capitalizing the opportunity that the recent peace deal inked between the United States and Afghan Taliban.
The Afghan reconciliatory leader stressed that ‘there were no winners in war, and no losers in peace’.
In the realms of challenges such as terrorism and coronavirus pandemic, he said, Pakistan and Afghanistan needed to work in close collaboration to overcome the related problems.
He appreciated Pakistan for hosting millions of Afghan refugees for over four decades and endorsed the proposed dignified their return to the homeland.
Dr Abdullah emphasized on strengthening bilateral relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the fields of transit trade and people-to-people contacts.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan desired sustainable peace in Afghanistan and would continue to extend support in this regard.
He said Pakistan’s peace was linked with Afghanistan’s peace and stability, and also of the entire region.
Qureshi said that Afghanistan must realize that Pakistan wanted to be its ‘friend and not master’.
He assured that Pakistan would support an Afghan-owned settlement of the situation.
