Trilateral meeting discusses economic cooperation, connectivity

PUGUS (Tajikistan) July 6 (APP): Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan on Thursday resolved to jointly work together to promote regional cooperation and connectivity for shared prosperity.
This resolve came during a tripartite meeting among the Heads of State / Government of Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan held in Dushanbe, at the invitation of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
During the tripartite discussions, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon discussed economic and security challenges being faced by the region due to poor connectivity and infrastructure.
Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appreciated the initiative of President Emomali Rahmon as an opportunity to collectively reflect on the common challenges such as under development, poor connectivity and infrastructure and extremism and terrorism.
The Prime Minister emphasized Pakistan’s commitment to modernize facilities for speedy transit of goods to and from
Afghanistan and Tajikistan through Pakistani seaports.
In order to streamline regional transit traffic, he
emphasized early finalization of Trilateral Transit Trade
Agreement.
The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan also
agreed to take measures for early implementation of the CASA-
1000 project which was a harbinger for power transmission from
Central Asia to South Asia and promoting sustainable economic
and social development in the region.
The Prime Minister thanked President Rahmon for holding
a quadrilateral meeting earlier in the day, among, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and other international
partners in the project.
He welcomed President Emomali Rahmon’s proposal for
establishment of a Tripartite Ministerial Commission to
strengthen trilateral cooperation in political, economic and
social spheres.
While highlighting Pakistan’s sacrifices and successes
in countering terrorism, the Prime Minister reiterated
Pakistan’s firm resolve to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.
He also reiterated Pakistan’s desire for lasting peace
and stability in Afghanistan which was a prerequisite for
regional security and prosperity.
He said Pakistan will continue to support all efforts to
ensure durable peace in Afghanistan through political dialogue
under Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.
Describing terrorism as a serious threat to peace and
stability, the Prime Minister emphasized that effective border
management was vital to combat the menace of terrorism by
preventing cross-border movement of terrorists.
In this regard, the Prime Minister stressed on the need
to strengthen the quadrilateral mechanism formed by
Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China in August 2016 for
combating terrorism.