Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday agreed to peacefully resolve border issues days after cross-border clashes caused casualties on both sides, the Foreign Ministry said.

Clashes had erupted along the Torkham, the busiest border crossing, between the troops of the two countries on June 12, over the construction of a gate on the Pakistani side. Afghanistan says Pakistan cannot build a gate near the border without its consent. Both sides later declared ceasefire.

Afghanistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Hekmat Khalil Karzai, led his country’s delegation in talks with Pakistani officials Islamabad on Monday and discussed ways to find out a solution to the issue.

“Today’s talks between the two delegations were held in a cordial atmosphere marked by a mutual desire to amicably resolve border related issues.  Both sides decided to work in the spirit of good neighbourly relations and friendly cooperation between the two countries,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.

The Pakistan delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry.

The two sides agreed that the ideas generated in the deliberations will be shared with the leadership and further discussed and refined during a meeting between the Adviser and the Afghan Foreign Minister on the side-lines of the forthcoming SCO Summit in Tashkent on 23-24 June, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“During the discussions, it was emphasized that there was a need for creating a suitable mechanism for consultation on border management issues.”

“Effective border management is vital for promoting peace, countering terrorism and strengthening relations between the two countries,” the statement said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have nearly 2600 kilometers border, mostly porous, and the militants take advantage of the loose control.

In order to strengthen monitoring, Pakistan introduced a new mechanism that has made it obligatory for every Afghan to carry passport and visa to enter Pakistan from June 1st.

People living near the border areas on both sides would earlier move across the border without travel documents.

Pakistan insists that militants would take advantage of the loose border control and would cross the border for terrorist activities in both sides.