KABUL: During talks with Pakistan’s visiting foreign minister, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday emphasized the need to fully implement the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS), as Kabul seeks to reset ties with the new government in Islamabad.
The one-day visit by Shah Mahmood Qureshi is the first by a top Pakistani official to Kabul since Imran Khan became prime minister in July.
The talks with Qureshi will show if there is a change of heart in Pakistan with the arrival of a new government, said a senior Afghan government member.
Earlier this month, the US froze $300 million in aid to Pakistan for allegedly not doing enough to curb the Afghan Taliban’s activities.
Qureshi’s visit coincides with a sharp rise in Taliban and Daesh attacks and long-delayed parliamentary elections in October, as well as presidential polls slated for April 2019 that Ghani plans to contest. Ghani is keen for Pakistan to convince the Taliban to not disrupt the elections.
The presidential palace in Kabul said Ghani and Qureshi discussed peace and security in the region, the joint fight against terrorism and implementation of APAPPS, which the two countries signed in April this year.
“The president, referring to the importance of APAPPS, said that this plan is all-sided and its effectiveness becomes important when enforced fully,” the palace said in a statement.
Qureshi also met with his Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
The closure earlier this month of Pakistan’s consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad was discussed with Rabbani, an Afghan official said.
Current and former officials in both capitals have expressed doubt that Qureshi’s visit will lead to any drastic or immediate change in bilateral relations.
Amrullah Saleh, a former Afghan spy chief, tweeted that Qureshi “will repeat word by word everything his predecessors have said in the past 17 years that Pakistan is not harboring terrorists.”
Afghan president emphasizes need to implement APAPPS to Pakistan FM
Afghan president emphasizes need to implement APAPPS to Pakistan FM
Hungary says it will block a key EU loan to Ukraine until Russian oil shipments resume
- Szijjártó said: “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine”
- Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments
BUDAPEST: Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s foreign minister said.
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies. Both countries ceased shipping diesel to Ukraine this week over the interruption in oil flows .
In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart shipments. He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.
“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Szijjártó said. “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine.”
Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments to its embattled neighbor and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia — both EU and NATO members — have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.
Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine.
On Saturday, Slovakia’s populist Prime minister Robert Fico said his country will stop providing emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil is not flowing through the Druzhba by Monday. Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said earlier this week that Hungary, too, was exploring the possibility of cutting off its electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Not all of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Kyiv. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.
