Afghanistan, Pakistan Agree to Resume QCG Meetings

AVA_ A statement released by the Afghan Presidential palace on Saturday said the first meeting will be hosted in Kabul followed up by Islamabad.

Despite tense relations between the two countries, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Astana where “the two leaders agreed to use Quadrilateral Coordination Group mechanism and where necessary bilateral meetings to agree on specific and concrete actions, and monitor and verify the actions taken against such terrorist groups”.

Last year, several QCG meetings held between representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, United States and China, in an attempt to revive the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but the process stopped due to what Afghanistan called Pakistan’s double policy toward terrorists and distinction of good and bad terrorists.

Once again, the two side have agreed to use the QCQ to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and “to fight terrorism in all of its forms” while taking “all necessary measures against those group who refuse to join the peace process”.