Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan has said that Islamabad might redeploy troops from the Afghanistan frontier to the Kashmir border, a shift that could complicate American peace talks with the Taliban, The New York Times reported.
In an interview with The New York Times editorial board on Monday, he emphasized that the Kashmir and Afghanistan issues were separate and that he was not attempting to link them.
On the contrary, he said, Pakistan hoped the American talks with the Taliban would succeed and that his country was actively supporting them.
“We are doing all that we can and will continue,” Mr. Khan said. “It’s not an either-or situation.”
The remarks are expressed at a time that the US and the Taliban negotiators wrapped up the eighth round of peace talks in Qatar. The two sides are expected to sign a peace agreement within the next few days which will provide the ground for US troop withdrawal and reduction of violence in Afghanistan.
This comes after on August 9, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Zahid Nasrullah Khan said that India-Pakistan tensions over Kashmir will not affect the Afghan peace process.
“While Pakistan and the international community is focused on the resolution of the Afghan conflict, India has chosen this time to destabilize the region,” Mr. Khan told Afghan media during a press briefing in Kabul.
He stated that Kashmir was a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan and it has nothing to do with the conflict in Afghanistan.
The two traditional nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors exchange war of words following a controversial decision by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who terminated article 370 of the Indian constitution, a controversial move that followed the revocation of special status on the Indian administered Kashmir.
In response to Modi’s provoking move, Pakistan’s national security committee on Wednesday decided to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Delhi and Islamabad also announced that it was cutting trade ties with India completely.
