ISLAMABAD: United States Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief General Kenneth McKenzie held a meeting with Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Monday to discuss the regional security situation and the ongoing peace efforts in Afghanistan.
According to an official statement by the military’s media wing, ISPR, the meeting focused on “geostrategic environment and regional security,” and the two sides discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
The meeting came at a time when tensions have once again flared up between the two South Asian nuclear-armed neighbors, India and Pakistan, after New Delhi revoked the limited constitutional autonomy of the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region on August 5.
India’s rightwing Hindu nationalist government also confined the residents of the disputed Himalayan region to their homes, clamped down on local leadership and imposed a near-total communications blackout in the area.
Apart from the situation in Kashmir, there has also been upsurge of violence in Afghanistan: The war-torn country has witnessed a breakdown of talks between the United States and Taliban, though the two sides were said to be close to a peace deal.
Pakistan’s foreign office in a statement on Sunday urged the US and Taliban to re-engage in peace negotiations.
“Pakistan has been facilitating the peace and reconciliation process in good faith and as a shared responsibility, and has encouraged all sides to remain engaged with sincerity and patience,” the statement said.
“Pakistan reiterates its principled policy stance that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and urges that both sides must re-engage to find negotiated peace from the ongoing political settlement process. Pakistan looks for optimized engagement following earliest resumption of talks,” it added.
On September 7, Pakistan hosted the third round of China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Trilateral Dialogue in Islamabad in which the three top diplomats of the participating countries reiterated their resolve to further deepen various strands of cooperation.
Top Pak-US military commanders discuss situation in Kashmir, Afghanistan
Top Pak-US military commanders discuss situation in Kashmir, Afghanistan
- The meeting focused on geostrategic environment and regional security, says ISPR
- The interaction between the two officials comes soon after President Trump called off negotiations with the Taliban
Pakistan condemns Sudan attack that killed Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers, calls it war crime
- Six peacekeepers were killed in a drone strike in Kadugli as fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF grinds on
- Pakistan, a major troop contributor to the UN, says perpetrators of the attack must be identified, brought to justice
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday extended condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh after six United Nations peacekeepers from the country were killed in a drone strike in southern Sudan, condemning the attack and describing it as a war crime.
The attack took place amid a full-scale internal conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group, following a power struggle after the collapse of Sudan’s post-Bashir political transition.
Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, was ousted by the military in 2019 after months of mass protests, but efforts to transition to civilian rule later faltered, plunging the country back into violence that has since spread nationwide.
The drone strike hit a logistics base of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, on Saturday, killing the Bangladeshi peacekeepers. Sudan’s army blamed the RSF for the attack, though there was no immediate public claim of responsibility.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on @UNISFA in Kadugli, resulting in the tragic loss of 6 Bangladeshi peacekeepers & injuries to several others,” the country’s permanent mission to the UN said in a social media message. “We honor their supreme sacrifice in the service of peace, and express our deepest condolences to the government and people of #Bangladesh.”
“Such heinous attacks on UN peacekeepers amount to war crimes,” it added. “Perpetrators of this horrific attack must be identified and brought to justice. As a major troop-contributing country, we stand in complete solidarity with all Blue Helmets serving the cause of peace in the perilous conditions worldwide.”
According to Pakistan’s UN mission in July, the country has deployed more than 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 UN missions across four continents over the past eight decades.
Pakistan also hosts one of the UN’s oldest peacekeeping operations, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), and is a founding member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.
More than 180 Pakistani peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have also been working in recent months to ease decades of strained ties rooted in the events of 1971, when Bangladesh — formerly part of Pakistan — became independent following a bloody war.
Relations have begun to shift following the ouster of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year amid mass protests.
Hasina later fled to India, Pakistan’s neighbor and arch-rival, creating space for Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild their relationship.
