Gen. Bajwa, ISI Chief participated in Bahrain talks on the Afghanistan issue

ISLAMABAD: Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Bajwa and the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelli­gence Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, attended a session on the Afghanistan peace process in Bahrain.

A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) mentioned that “Current developments in Afghan peace process, border security and necessary steps to be undertaken to facilitate an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process were discussed” during the meeting on Tuesday.

Reportedly, this meeting was part of international efforts to accelerate the Afghanistan peace process, which virtually stalled in the final months of the Trump Administration - an effort that included multiple international key players.

The meeting took place as the United States planned to request the United Nations to convene a meeting of foreign ministers and diplomatic envoys from Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and India - allowing regional powers to develop a unified approach for supporting the peace process.

The Biden Administration also proposed a ‘power sharing agreement’ between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

United States' Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a recent letter to President Ashraf Ghani, reiterated the urgency for a political settlement on the Afghan dispute, warning that the “Taliban could make rapid territorial gains” in the eventuality of a U.S troop withdrawal.

The United States, under the ambit of an agreement signed with the Taliban in February 2020, has to complete its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by the 1st of May.