Pakistan summons Afghan envoy to express 'strong reservations' over India-Afghanistan joint statement

Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday summoned the Afghan ambassador to convey its “strong reservations” over the India-Afghanistan joint statement issued in New Delhi a day earlier.

Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi on Thursday, is on a six-day visit to India.

The Foreign Office (FO) in a statement said the Additional Foreign Secretary (West Asia & Afghanistan) conveyed Pakistan’s “strong reservations” to the Afghan envoy regarding references made to Jammu and Kashmir in the joint statement.

“It was conveyed that the reference to Jammu and Kashmir as part of India is in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions...," the Foreign Office said.

According to the joint statement, Afghanistan has strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in April and expressed condolences and solidarity with the people and the Government of India. Both sides unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism emanating from regional countries as they underscored the importance of promoting peace, stability, and mutual trust in the region.

Islamabad also rejected Muttaqi's assertion that terrorism is an internal issue of Pakistan.

The statement emphasised that shifting responsibility for controlling terrorism onto Pakistan could not absolve the Afghan Interim Government of its obligations to ensure regional peace and stability.

Highlighting Pakistan’s long-standing hospitality, the FO said the country had hosted nearly four million Afghans for over four decades. With peace returning to Afghanistan, Pakistan reiterated that unauthorised Afghan nationals residing in the country should return home.

"Like all other countries, Pakistan has the right to regulate the presence of foreign nationals residing inside its territory," it said, adding that Islamabad continued to issue medical and study visas to Afghan citizens “in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and good neighbourly relations”.

FO said Pakistan is desirous of seeing a peaceful, stable, regionally connected and prosperous Afghanistan.

Reaffirming its desire for a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan, the FO said Pakistan had extended trade, economic, and connectivity facilitation to promote socio-economic cooperation between the two nations.

However, it stressed that Pakistan also had a duty to ensure the safety of its people and expected the Afghan government to take “concrete measures” to prevent its territory from being used by terrorist elements against Pakistan.