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REGIONAL BRIEF Bimonthly |
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November-December 2013 - No.39 |
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Home
The India-Pakistan Peace
Process
Sidra
Tariq
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s visit to India in December 2013
extended positive vibes from Islamabad. The trip underlined Prime
Minister Nawaz
Sharif’s keen desire for breaking the logjam for resuming the process of
composite dialogue,
disrupted after the recent ceasefire violations along the Line of
Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. However, a series of informal,
high-level interactions in November 2013 on the sidelines of
multilateral conferences —
an Asia Europe meeting (Asem) in Delhi and the Commonwealth Summit in
Colombo — yielded no outcome.
Afghanistan
Humera
Iqbal
An American intelligence report warned that the gains the
US and its allies made in Afghanistan would be lost by 2017. Some NATO
countries expressed
commitment to continue with security and training
assistance to Afghan security forces beyond 2014, though presently their
post-2014 mission remains
vague in the absence of any official arrangements with
Kabul. Likewise, after Loya Jirga’s approval for signing the US-Afghan
Bilateral Security Agreement
on Karzai’s demand, the pact still remains unsigned due to
additional conditions put by Karzai on US to agree first. Although the US
agreed to wait for
signing on Afghanistan’s time, the rift between the two
countries was apparent, as were the ups and down bedevilling Pak-Afghan
ties. Despite Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Kabul to express continued
support for the peace process, Afghan skepticism remained. The insurgent
leader, Hakimullah
Mehsud, was killed in a US drone strike which led to the
appointment of Fazlullah as the new head of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Where Pakistan-US
relations saw improvement with the decision on resuming the
strategic dialogue, both sides remained adamant over the protests Pakistan
lodged in reaction
to US derailing of peace talks by killing of Hakimullah
Mehsud. With US-Afghan ties in friction President Karzai looked to
regional countries
for future support.
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