By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
January 29, 2022
Pakistan’s national-security adviser has met with high-ranked members of the Taliban-led government in Kabul, to discuss bilateral cooperation, border issues, and efforts to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, officials said on January 29.
Moeed Yusuf arrived in Kabul as the head of a delegation that includes cabinet ministers and economic and security experts.
Yusuf and the Taliban’s acting deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, discussed trade, transit, and the implementation of major regional projects, including the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) Pipeline, and the Central Asia-South Asia electricity power project, known as CASA-1000, a Taliban spokesman said.
Hanafi invited Pakistani entrepreneurs and companies to invest in Afghanistan’s energy, mining, and agriculture sectors, the spokesman added.
Pakistani media reported that the meetings in Kabul will also focus on Islamabad’s economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan where millions are facing extreme hunger and the economy is on the brink of collapse.
Pakistan is alleged to have supported and sheltered the Afghan Taliban while the hard-line group fought an armed insurgency against Afghan and international forces for two decades.
But the relationship between Islamabad and the Taliban-led government has become strained in recent months as Pakistan continued erecting a 2,500-kilometer fence along the border with Afghanistan.
Yusuf was initially scheduled to visit Kabul on January 18, but his trip was postponed.
With reporting by dawn.com and dpa