ANTALYA, Turkey: The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with the Chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) Abdullah Abdullah on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) on Friday.
​Recalling the successful visit of Abdullah Abdullah in September 2020, the foreign minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s policy of maintaining the broad engagement with the Afghan political leadership to forge a deeper mutual understanding on the bilateral relations and the Afghan peace process.
Met @DrabdullahCE & reaffirmed our policy of engagement across the board with Afghan political leadership to forge deeper mutual understanding on bilat relations & peace process. Shared our hope for 🇦🇫 leaders to expedite progress in Intra-Afghan Negotiations for lasting peace. pic.twitter.com/5rsfdjwly9
— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) June 18, 2021
​The foreign minister highlighted Pakistan’s meaningful contribution to facilitate the direct talks between the US and Taliban as well as the Afghan parties.
Qureshi reiterated that it was now up to the Afghan leaders to seize the historic opportunity afforded by the intra-Afghan negotiations for an inclusive, broad-based, and comprehensive settlement. He urged the Afghan leaders to expedite progress in intra-Afghan negotiations for lasting peace in Afghanistan.
The foreign minister added that the progress in the Afghan peace process was critical to reduce space for spoilers, who did not wish to see the return of peace in the region.
The foreign minister underscored that negative statements and blame game only served to vitiate the environment and strengthen the hand of spoilers who wished to derail the peace process.
