Gilani to arrive in Kabul on Saturday for multi-faceted talks with Karzai

       
KABUL, Dec 3 (APP): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani will arrive here on Saturday on a two-day official visit to hold wide ranging talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to give impetus to economic and trade activity and discuss a joint strategy against enace of terrorism and extremism. The two leaders will exchange views on ways to energize the Afghan reconciliation process which has the backing of international community including United States and could prove decisive in bringing back opposition groups into political mainstream.
The Prime Minister will be in the Afghan capital on invitation of President Karzai to bolster ties to overcome regional security The key areas expected to come under discussion will be counter-terrorism, transit trade and investment, infrastructure development, energy linkages and capacity building in education, health and agriculture sectors.
Gilani and Karzai will hold a separate meeting, besides the delegation level talks. The Prime Minister will also meet leading Afghan politicians and businessmen.
The two leaders will be keen to shift gear on Pak-Afghan relations and put it on a more sustainable footing to expand avenues leading to socio-economic uplift of their peoples.
The leadership of both countries has increased frequency of their bilateral interactions in recent months to turn tide against terrorism, which is threatening the very social fabric of their societies.
Both countries realize that in view of the ever constant threats of terrorism and extremism, they need to get their act together and as good neighbours make most of their strategic partnership.
Pakistan is backing the Afghan-led inclusive reconciliation process to further prospects for a peaceful and secure Afghanistan as the US-led International Assistance Security Force (ISAF) goes for a phased withdrawal starting from July 2011.
Pakistan has welcomed formation of high level Peace Council in Afghanistan in September and setting up of Peace and Reconciliation Trust Fund for reintegration programmes for Taliban.
Seeing terrorism as a common threat for stability of both countries, the two leaders will concentrate on measures to fortify collaboration between their security institutions and enhance intelligence sharing.
At his last meeting with Karzai in September, Prime Minister Gilani proposed bilateral security dialogue to build closer coordination through institutional arrangements between security and intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Afghanistan to effectively combat threat of terrorism.
The two sides will also discuss measures to ramp up efforts to eliminate production and trafficking of narcotics which is a source of funding for terrorists.
Last month, the officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran held a meeting in Islamabad and agreed to set up liaison offices and open a joint anti-narcotics planning office in Tehran to pursue a joint counter narcotics strategy.
Pakistan is participating in numerous infrastructure projects in Afghanistan particularly in the fields of health, education and road building.
The two countries are looking for ways to increase educational and cultural contacts, more interaction between their civil societies, liberalization of visa regimes and harmonizing tariffs to increase volume of formal bilateral trade.
Pakistan and Afghanistan in October this year successfully concluded a transit trade agreement giving both sides an opportunity to increase their trade volume.
Under the agreement, truck containers from Afghanistan will pass through Pakistan to the Wagah border with India and to the Pakistani ports of Karachi and Gwadar.
Pakistan is seeking assistance of Afghanistan is building a road link between Pakistan and Tajikistan through Wakhan strip to facilitate the trilateral transit trade agreement between the three countries.
Pakistan is Afghanistan's largest trading partner and Islamabad and Kabul want to raise their bilateral trade to US$ 5 billion by 2015.
After signing of a memorandum of understanding this year, Pakistan will help build rail tracks in Afghanistan to link up with its railways.
Sensing the immense potential for commercial activities in future, the private sectors of two countries have taken steps for forming a joint chamber of commerce and industry and a meeting of Pak-Afghan businessmen will be held in January in Karachi to firm up proposals to establish the body.