Pak, Afghan officials to hold talks on Monday

Senior officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan will hold talks here on Monday under a bilateral arrangement to improve cooperation in different fields.

Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood will lead the Pakistan delegation while the Afghan side will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Idrees Zaman at the first review session of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

"The forthcoming session will provide the two sides an opportunity to review progress made under this framework since the inaugural session and to exchange views on further collaboration in agreed areas of cooperation, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The APAPPS was established in May 2018 to provide a comprehensive and structured framework for institutional bilateral engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan in diverse areas of cooperation.

The mechanism works through five working groups on politico-diplomatic ties; military-to-military coordination; intelligence cooperation; economic cooperation and refugees' problem.

The inaugural session of APAPPS was held in Kabul on July 22, 2018, where the two sides had agreed to synergize efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation and build trust.