Afghan deputy FM reaches Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Idress Zaman, along with a delegation, Monday arrived in Islamabad to attend first review session of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

According to the details, Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood will lead the Pakistan delegation while the visiting dignitary Idress Zaman will lead the Afghan side. The forum was established in May last year to provide a comprehensive and structured framework for institutional bilateral engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan in diverse areas of cooperation.

The mechanism works through five working groups, namely politico-diplomatic, military-to-military coordination, intelligence cooperation, economic and refugees. The inaugural session of APAPPS was held in Kabul on 22 July last year, where the two sides had agreed to synergize efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation and build trust. The forthcoming session will provide the two sides an opportunity to review progress made under this framework since the inaugural session and to exchange views on further collaboration in agreed areas of cooperation.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan during his meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Makka on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had expressed Pakistan’s resolve for ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan.