Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was due in Kabul yesterday for his first official visit to Afghanistan, which was likely to focus on how to tackle extremist violence straddling their common border.
Zardari, who postponed a trip last month because of bad weather, was due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai shortly after arriving from Islamabad yesterday afternoon, the Pakistani embassy said.
“They will mainly be discussing bilateral relations, economic cooperation, trade and the regional situation,” embassy spokesman Naeem Khan said.
Asked if the resurgence of the extremist Taliban along the Afghan and Pakistan border would be a focus, he said: “The regional situation covers all related topics.”
The visit by Zardari comes less than a week after Pakistan’s army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani travelled to Afghanistan to discuss the fight against insurgents.
The rugged border belt is a new focus in the US-led “war on terror,” with Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operating bases on the Pakistan side from which they are said to send fighters to carry out attacks, including in Afghanistan.
Islamabad and Kabul have been unable to rein in the extremists that have been holed up in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas since they fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion that drove out the Taliban government in late 2001.
The situation has strained relations between the two Islamic nations, with Karzai accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to shut down militant “sanctuaries” on its soil and stop insurgents from crossing into Afghanistan.
Officials have expressed hope that the two countries can improve cooperation under Zardari, who was elected in September to replace former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, with whom Karzai had a difficult relationship.
The Afghan leader visited Pakistan to attend Zardari’s swearing-in ceremony.
At their last meeting in Istanbul early last month they pledged to “confront the scourge of terrorism in all its forms.”
Zardari said on Monday, after meeting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher, that Pakistan was “pursuing cooperative partnerships with regional countries” to combat terrorism and extremism.
The Pakistani leader “expressed the hope that his forthcoming visit to Afghanistan would contribute to enhanced cooperation in the areas of security, counter-terrorism and economic development,” a foreign ministry statement said.
Karzai said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper last month that he had no doubt that Zardari was serious about the “war on terrorism.”
“And I hope he and his government will succeed in this regard ... I have full trust in him and his intentions,” he said.
Pakistan last week mounted a major offensive to clear militants from an area near a key highway into Afghanistan used by trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and US troops helping Kabul to fight the insurgency.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending