Mariam Safi
Afghanistan’s newly elected President, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, arrived in
Islamabad on 14 November 2014, marking his first official trip to
Pakistan since assuming office. Officials from both countries have
underscored the unique opportunity this meeting presented for genuine
efforts to be taken towards building bilateral relations.
Ghani’s two-day visit marked his government’s third official trip abroad
and perhaps the most significant, following his earlier visits to Saudi
Arabia and China; the two countries signed various agreements on
economics, expanding existing areas of cooperation, and simultaneously
made new pledges to improve relations to tackle insurgency and to ensure
a successful Afghan peace process. Similarly, by charting a new era of
bilateral relations reinforced by the two countries’ common needs for
economic development and political stability, Ghani hopes to draw
concrete results from his visit to Pakistan.
During his visit, Ghani met Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain,
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistani Army Chief General
Raheel Sharif. Unlike his predecessor Hamid Karzai, Ghani focused his
talks with military and intelligence officials instead of just the
civilian leadership. Discussions ranged from issues such as ways to
improve economic cooperation to finding ways to ensure better border
security and facilitating joint counter-terrorism efforts after the NATO
withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.
Economy
Transforming the Afghan economy is one of Ghani administrations’
ultimate objectives. “Our goal is to transform Afghanistan into transit
hub for the region and that means we have to create the conditions for
that” asserted Ghani during an interview with The Diplomat.
As part of this vision, opening up new avenues for trade and economic
cooperation with Pakistan is considered a key facilitating factor. While
in Islamabad, Ghani was accompanied by an army of 150 officials,
including businessmen, civil society representatives, and members of the
parliament. He also took along with him a high-level business
delegation led by Chief Economic Advisor to the President, Omar
Zakhilwal. A day before Ghani reached Islamabad, Zakhilwal and his
Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, agreed on concerted efforts
to enhance bilateral trade from the existing $2.5 billion to 5 billion
in the next two to three years. One way of achieving this, as stressed
by the Afghan delegates, is to have Pakistan take the necessary steps in
providing easy access for Afghan goods to Pakistan’s main port in
Karachi and through the Wagah land-border with India.
Additionally, officials from both countries also mentioned that more
exchanges of high-level delegations and mutual discussions, particularly
on issues related to energy, road and rail links, were needed to ensure
greater cooperation. Moreover, the two countries also agreed to employ
betters measures for visa facilitation, particularly for businesses.
Political
The general sentinment in Afghanistan and among many in Pakistan is
that Ashraf Ghani’s presidency will lead to a fresh new page in Af-Pak
relations. During Karzai’s period, tensions were rife between the two
countries and their trust deficit tested all issues from
counter-terrorism to security cooperation and the Afghan peace process.
However, as Ghani himself stated, “The region has changed,” explaining
that with this change an opportunity has emerged to transform once
hostile relations into a symbiotic partnership. “This new government
(Pakistan) realizes the deep economic problem that the country faces. It
also realizes that extremism cannot be bounded in a neighbor or used
against a neighbor and that it is a threat to all of us.”
Thus, Ghani utilised his visit to Pakistan to harness “a[n] honest
partner in peace talks with the Taliban” and revive the stagnant Afghan
peace process. Ghani hopes that Pakistan will assist Afghans in
persuading insurgents to reconcile and reintegrate. In his last meeting
with Pakistani officials, Ghani “set a 90-day deadline for
implementation of commitments from both sides regarding peace talks with
the Taliban.”
Conclusion
Optimism has certainly increased over better bilateral cooperation
between Afghanistan and Pakistan after Ashraf Ghani’s visit. However,
there still remains a great deal of uncertainty as to how the leaders of
both nations will transform the rhetoric of ‘enhanced and genuine
cooperation’ into practice? It will be interesting to see how Ghani’s
approach towards Pakistan will differ from that of Karzai’s. And,
whether he too will face the same, or perhaps different, challenges from
Pakistan in the years ahead of his presidency.
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