ISLAMABAD: The Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Atif Mashal said the Kabul government was “cautiously optimistic” that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to Pakistan this week would open a new chapter in bilateral relations.
Ghani will visit Pakistan from June 27-28 at the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan for talks on key issues, including a faltering peace process aimed to end Afghanistan’s lengthy civil war, regional connectivity, and trade and transit routes. He last visited Pakistan for the Heart of Asia conference in 2015.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been strained in recent years amid long-standing allegations by Kabul and Washington that Pakistan has been sheltering Taliban militants since US-led forces removed them from power in 2001, something Islamabad vehemently denies. 
The United States has been pushing Pakistan to use its influence with the Taliban to open direct negotiations with the Kabul government, which the Taliban regard as an illegitimate foreign-imposed regime. Pakistan says its sway over the Taliban has waned in recent years.
“We are cautiously optimistic that a new page of the relationship will be opened during the visit,” Mashal told Arab News at an interview at his office in Islamabad, adding that the visit was the result of over six months of high-level contact between the two governments.
Ghani and Khan last met on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Makkah on May 28. They also spoke over the phone last month, rekindling hopes of a positive movement in bilateral ties. 
“We are trying to make the environment further positive,” Mashal said. “We have agreed in principle that security issues should not affect others things and we should also focus on connectivity, trade and transit.”
When asked about talks between the US and the Taliban, which have intensified since December last year, the Afghan envoy said Kabul and Washington were moving forward with the peace process together. 
“All information is shared with each other. We work on a joint agenda,” Mashal said. “But we want all countries to coordinate their efforts with the Afghan government and move forward.”
The top diplomat said Pakistan and Afghanistan, along with other nations in the region, should join hands to fight poverty and solve economic challenges for the region at large.
“This will also strengthen Prime Minister Imran Khan’s quest to fight poverty in the region and Pakistan,” the envoy said. “Afghanistan could play a key role to achieve this objective. Afghanistan could connect Central Asia and South Asia and we are committed to it.”
Emphasizing the need for security and anti-terror cooperation, he said “only Afghans are not responsible to fight terrorism but other countries should also realize their responsibility.”
Mashal said Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib, who visited Pakistan last month on the invitation of Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, held useful meetings. He also said he was confident that a bilateral mechanism, the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS), would be resumed soon after months of deadlock.
A review meeting of the APAPPS was held in Islamabad on June 10 in which Pakistan reiterated support for an inclusive, Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process.
“The APAPPS meeting was overdue and should have happened earlier but could not be held and was delayed as we demanded practical steps,” Mashal said. “But we are happy the meeting was held. We want continuation of the meetings but want implementation of the promises we make in the meetings.” 
The APAPPS was established in May 2018 to provide a comprehensive and structured framework for institutional engagement in diverse areas of bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The framework comprises five working groups focused on politico-diplomatic, military-to-military coordination, intelligence cooperation, economy and refugee issues.