AP News, May 30th, 2007
Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed Wednesday to increase cooperation after meeting with Group of Eight foreign ministers amid concerns that enmity between the neighbors is helping the Taliban inflict mounting losses on NATO troops and Afghan civilians.
The two nations' foreign ministers said in a joint statement that they "renewed their governments' commitment to strengthen cooperation and dialogue between their countries and governments at all levels."
They promised more cooperation in the fields of security, refugees, economic development and contacts between civil societies.
"We have to address the cross-border movement of activities of terrorist groups," Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on the sidelines of the conference. "Without Pakistan's cooperation it is not possible to have any success against terrorist activities and I am happy to report to you that Pakistan tells us they will work with us."
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the G-8 presidency, welcomed the agreement. Steinmeier helped broker the meeting with Spanta and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri during a trip to both countries this month.
"It is indispensable for improving the security situation in the area that Afghanistan and Pakistan cooperate better ... in protecting the borders," Steinmeier said.
Kasuri said Pakistan and Afghanistan had many shared interests and that "we have a vital interest in seeing that peace and stability return to Afghanistan."
"History has taught us that whenever Afghanistan is in trouble, it's only a matter of time before trouble spills over to our side," he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf have repeatedly accused each other of responsibility for a resurgence by radical Taliban fighters.
Musharraf insists Pakistan is doing all it can to counter Islamic militants sheltering among sympathetic tribes in its remote border region and that Afghanistan is not matching its effort to seal the frontier with thousands of troops.
However, Karzai has accused Pakistan of using the militants to undermine his government and said putting soldiers on the border does nothing to shut down militant bases inside Pakistan.
In recent weeks, Pakistani and Afghan troops have also fought several skirmishes along a contested portion of the border.
The G-8 members _ Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada, Germany and the United States _ joined Afghanistan and Pakistan in expressing reinforced commitment to the fight against "all dimensions of terrorism" and "stressed the vital importance of security for long-term reconstruction and development in the region and in Afghanistan in particular."
The statement came out of one of several ministerial-level meetings before the group's main summit June 6-8 in the northern resort town of Heiligendamm.
The foreign ministers also committed to "continue supporting moderation, fighting all forms of extremism and terrorism including its financial, training and ideological centers through mutually agreed and coordinated action."
Beyond the talks with the Pakistani and Afghan officials, the foreign ministers discussed Iran, Kosovo, Sudan's Darfur region and the Middle East.
The United States and key European countries are trying to narrow differences with Russia over the future of Kosovo, which has been administered by the U.N. since a 1999 war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The U.N. Security Council has been divided over the issue; the United States and key European countries support Kosovo's independence, and Russia, traditionally a Serbian ally, opposes it.
They emerged from the talks seemingly no closer to a solution, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying "our positions are diametrically opposed and for the moment I don't see any chance of the positions moving closer to one another."
Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also traded barbs over American plans to erect parts of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, with Lavrov calling the plan a threat to Russia and adding that "the arms race is starting again."
Rice noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had said Russia's own strategic defenses could easily overpower the U.S. system.
"We quite agree," she said.
"I hope that nobody has to actually prove that Condi is right about that," Lavrov quipped back.
