Zardari, Karzai,Cameron for peace in Afghanistan through reconciliation

London: Leaders of Pakistan,Afghanistan and Britain on Monday agreed to work together and commit to take all necessary measures for achieving the goal of peaceful settlement in Afghanistan.

The commitment was made at a trilateral summit hosted here
at the outskirts of London by British Prime Minister David Cameron and attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Asif Ali
Zardari.They were joined by foreign ministers, chiefs of defence
staff, chiefs of intelligence, the Afghan National Security Adviser
and the Chair of the Afghan High Peace Council.

This was the third trilateral meeting hosted by Prime Minister
Cameron in the last year to discuss the Afghan-led peace and
reconciliation process and how to strengthen joint efforts
to address extremism and advance regional peace and stability.

According to a joint statement issued at the end of
trilateral summit, the three leaders noted significant progress
since they last met in September 2012 and stressed the importance of
maintaining peace and momentum.

The Afghan and Pakistani delegations agreed that quality of
dialogue and cooperation had significantly improved. They committed
themselves to continue to make strenuous efforts in the spirit
of mutual interest.Both the sides agreed that good neighbourly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, that ensured the long term stability of both countries, was of fundamental importance.

The three leaders discussed progress on the Afghan-led peace
and reconciliation process.President Karzai and his delegation briefed the summit on the Afghan vision and roadmap for peace and reconciliation.President Zardari reiterated that Pakistan would extend full support to peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
All the sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed
themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a
peace settlement over the next six months.They affirmed the importance of regional and international support.

President Karzai and Prime Minister Cameron
affirmed that they supported the opening of an office in Doha for
the purpose of negotiations between the Taliban and the High Peace
Council of Afghanistan as part of an Afghan-led peace process.
The end result should be one in which all Afghans could participate
peacefully in the country’s political future.

They called on the Taliban to take steps necessary to
open an office and enter into dialogue.President Karzai and President Zardari looked forward to a joint conference of Afghan President and Pakistani Ulema in early March.The two leaders agreed to arrangements to strengthen co-ordination of Taliban detainees release from Pakistani custody in support of the peace and reconciliation process.

President Karzai and President Zardari re-affirmed their
commitments of September 26, 2012 on a Strategic Partnership
Agreement (SPA).In addition to the peace process, discussions covered a range of bilateral issues, including economic cooperation, security cooperation,people-to-people links, refugee returns and border management.Both the sides stressed that progress on the SPA and peace process would mutually reinforce close cooperation between the two
countries.

The two sides agreed that negotiations would commence with
meetings of foreign, interior and commerce ministers during February
to take forward trade and border management issues.The two sides also agreed to take early steps to resolve the
question of refugee returns.Prime Minister Cameron committed that the United Kingdom would support these efforts.

In this context, the two sides agreed that they wanted to
build greater trust and cooperation between their military and
security services and agreed on concrete steps to deliver this.The Afghan and Pakistan chiefs of defence staff and intelligence held fruitful discussions and agreed on new mechanisms for strengthening cooperation.