Pak, Afghanistan agree to increase trade links

Pakistan and Afghanistan today agreed to increase trade and commercial links amid improving security cooperation between the two fractious neighbours after the Peshawar school massacre.
Afghanistan's Acting Minister for Commerce and Deputy Minister for Trade and Policy, Mozamel Shinwari met Pakistan Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz at the Foreign Office here.
Shinwari is visiting Pakistan at the head of the Afghan delegation for the 5th meeting of Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Coordinating Authority (APTTCA).
The Foreign Office said Aziz noted that the common vision of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Ashraf Ghani envisages a strong trade and economic partnership between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Aziz said a number of initiatives relating to bilateral trade, transit trade, and investments were agreed during Ghani's visit to Pakistan in November and it was important for both sides to work closely together to follow-up and to ensure optimal realisation of the vast untapped trade and economic potential.
The two sides expressed satisfaction over the fruitful deliberations during the 5th meeting of APTTCA currently underway in Islamabad.

Aziz hoped that the first expert level meeting for Trilateral Transit Trade Agreement (TTTA) tomorrow would be an important step towards deepening trilateral trade collaboration among Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Shinwari noted that Pakistan is Afghanistan's largest trading partner and he reaffirmed Afghanistan's desire for further deepening bilateral trade and economic cooperation through common endeavours.

The two sides reiterated their commitment to intensify bilateral interaction in the transit, customs and transportation spheres and to enhance connectivity through road and rail links to provide further spurt to the growing economic partnership.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have often been at loggerheads over the presence of militants along the porous border between the two countries.
Afghanistan faces serious security concerns after the withdrawal of US troops from the war-torn country while Pakistan is battling a violent Taliban insurgency, suffering its deadliest ever terror attack with last month's Peshawar school massacre that killed 150 people, mostly children.
Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif had also visited Afghanistan a day after the massacre to seek extradition of Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah whose group had claimed responsibility for the attack.