KABUL, Afghanistan: The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will visit Islamabad this week to hold talks with the Pakistani leadership, focusing on bolstering economic ties and security cooperation.
His visit comes as a part of efforts to reset bilateral relations with Pakistan as the ties between the two neighboring countries were particularly strained under former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who routinely accused Pakistan of providing support to the Afghan Taliban.
“Afghanistan wants to have real and honest cooperation and friendship with this neighboring country,” the Afghan president’s spokesman Nazifullah Salarzai said in Kabul.
“As the president has said, we have this window of opportunity. We want this window to be transformed into a door, then into a corridor, and then into a highway,” Salarzai said.
Since Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new Afghan president on September 29, top Pakistani officials including the prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif have paid visits to Kabul and met with the new Afghan leader.
During his meeting with the Afghan defense minister Bismillah Muhammadi in Kabul, Pakistan’s army chief also offered full range of training courses and facilities in Pakistan’s training institutions to Afghan security forces.
