ASTANA: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Sunday reaffirmed his stance that Kabul was ready for comprehensive talks with Islamabad as he met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a summit in Kazakhstan, the Afghan presidential palace said in a statement.
Ghani said Afghanistan wants to have good relations with its neighbours and that the country was ready to hold talks with Pakistan. He said there was a need for change in the current situation and that regional countries must work towards peace and stability.
Ghani said terrorism was a threat. He urged the world to work together to overcome extremism, read the statement. Ghani said the new US strategy on Afghanistan was a comprehensive plan and that the regional countries should use the opportunity that it had provided, the statement read. Erdogan said Turkey had long, historic relations with Afghanistan and it supported the new US strategy on Afghanistan. He also expressed his country’s readiness to help improve relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan and said his country supported the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.
Ghani is in Astana to participate in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s first-ever science and technology summit. Nearly 20 presidents and heads of OIC states, along with members and observers, and a number of international and regional organisations are participating in the summit.
Published in Daily Times, September 11th 2017.
