Pak-US national security advisers discuss Afghan political settlement

WASHINGTON: The national security advisers of Pakistan and the United States have discussed the need for a negotiated political settlement in Afghanistan and agreed to “sustain the momentum in Pak-US cooperation”.

The two counterparts held a follow-up meeting in Washington during which discussed the situation in Afghanistan. In a tweet on Thursday night, National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf, who conferred with his American counterpart Jake Sullivan, called the meeting “positive”, without elaborating further.

This was their second meeting after Geneva in May, as part of high-level bilateral engagements between the two countries. “We discussed the urgent need for a reduction in violence in Afghanistan and a negotiated political settlement to the conflict,” Sullivan, the American National Security Adviser, tweeted.

Yusuf, who arrived in Washington on July 27, also tweeted: “Took stock of progress made since our Geneva meeting and discussed bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. Agreed to sustain the momentum in Pak-US bilateral cooperation.”

Sullivan wrote that during the meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, regional connectivity and security, and other areas of mutual cooperation were discussed. Besides the meetings between the national security advisers of the two countries, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has had contacts with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

In addition, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has had conversations with with Gen Bajwa.

Blinken returned to Washington on Thursday evening after visits to India and Kuwait. Before his departure from New Delhi, he told an Indian channel: “Pakistan has a vital role to play in using its influence with the Taliban to do whatever it can to make sure that the Taliban does not seek to take the country by force.”