30 December 2015

Editorial: Afghanistan, Pakistan Lay Groundwork for Taliban Peace Talks in Early 2016

By Ankit Panda

Pakistan’s top general visited Afghanistan this weekend to discuss another round of peace talks with the Taliban.

It appears that relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are creeping back toward normalcy after a falling out late this summer. Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, arguably the most powerful man in the country, met with senior Afghan officials in Kabul over the weekend to discuss Pakistan’s role in underwriting peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Since the falling out between Kabul and Islamabad, which took place after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government initiated a major bilateral rapprochement in early 2015, the Afghan government has seen the threat from the Taliban rise considerably. Peace talks between the government and the insurgents broke down over the summer. Since a recent multilateral conference on Afghanistan, relations between Islamabad and Kabul have improved, creating the conditions for Gen. Sharif’s latest visit.

Gen. Sharif’s visit to Kabul focused on more than just peace talks between the government and the Taliban. According to Asim Bajwa, a spokesperson for the Pakistani military, the general’s agenda in Kabul focused on joint counter-terrorism efforts, border monitoring, and administrative issues. Bajwa also noted that Gen. Sharif visited Bagram Air Base, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, now under Afghan government control, and met with Gen. John F. Campbell, the current commander of the Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces-Afghanistan.

Read the full story at The Diplomat