Pakistan to urge Afghan authorities to resolve issue of sanctuaries: FO

ISLAMABAD, Feb 28 (APP): Pakistan would continue to pursue various channels of communication with the Afghan authorities, urging them to take care of the issue of sanctuaries used by terrorists on the territory of Afghanistan.
Speaking at the weekly press briefing here on Friday, the Foreign Office Spokesperson said, “We have impressed upon the issue of sanctuaries before the international community and the Afghan authorities.
“Pakistan desires friendly, cooperative relations with Afghanistan the way it should be between two neighbors which are tied together through the bonds of history, culture, language and so many complementarities,” he added.
He said, “The key stumbling block in the way of the progress, is the question of sanctuaries enjoyed by terrorists on the Afghan territory. This is a problem we have been emphasizing to the Afghan authorities that needs to be addressed squarely and clearly, and we would continue to pursue various channels of communication with the Afghan authorities to take care of this problem.”
To a question regarding trucks stuck at the Pakistan-Iran border and border management, he said, “Broadly speaking, border management is often a complex issue and there are multiple agencies involved from both countries.”
“There are customs, immigration, security, and layers of government departments interacting with each other. At times there could be some misunderstanding like lack of proper documentation. But that doesn’t mean there is a rupture of the commercial interaction between the two countries.”
“About the Torkham border, essentially the problem is that the Afghan side is trying to construct a border post on our side unilaterally and we have urged them to resolve such issues through bilateral mechanism, such as Joint Coordination Committee Meeting, instead of resorting to unilateral actions.”
“We are hopeful that the matter would be resolved through dialogue. With regards to the issue of decision making, I cannot comment on the details of the decision making, but border cannot be closed by an individual on his whim. There are bilateral mechanisms for such matters. If a situation is aggravated due to some development on the other side, till that matter is resolved the border can be closed.”
Responding to a question, he said, “F-16 oversight program is a regular feature of Pakistan-US Defense collaboration under the “end user agreement” and Pakistan welcomes its continuation.”
“With regards to the broader direction of Pakistan US relations, as I’ve been emphasizing, these are decades old relations and are robust and strong. Our desire is to continue with this important relationship. Pakistan remains committed to carrying this relationship forward.”
“Our relations with the United States are an important priority of our foreign policy. These relations are very dense, and multi-dimensional. We intend to pursue our engagement with the new US administration and interactions between the two countries continue.
Talking about the recent Pakistan-UK dialogue on terrorism, he said, “Both sides exchanged views on the situation in Afghanistan, global and regional landscape and on the security, threats posed by terrorist entities. The talks included the exchange of best practices in the areas of; law enforcement, security, criminal justice, rule of law, countering financing for terrorism and capacity building.”