The Tripartite Commission, composed of senior military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, held its thirteenth meeting here on Tuesday.
Those attended the meeting included Lieutenant General Sher M. Karimi, Chief of Operations of the Afghan National Army, Major General Muhammad Yousaf, Director General of Military Operations of the Pakistan Army, and Lieutenant General Kart W. Eikenberry, Commander, Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan.
The session began with each delegation delivering a briefing summarising its plan to provide security for the recent successful Afghan elections, and identifying those aspects of co-operation's among the parties that worked best and those that could be improved.
All parties agreed that Pakistan's deployment of additional forces to the border region and the co-ordination of Pakistani, Afghan and coalition operations were a significant factor in preventing insurgents from disrupting the elections.
All parties further agreed that continued co-operation and co-ordination to enhance security was essential to long-term success against al Qaeda and terrorist movements.
The delegates then moved to an examination of the further of the Tripartite Commission and ways to expand their co-operative security efforts.
The Coalition briefed among others topics, its plan to expand intelligence/ information- sharing and co-operation in countering improvised explosive devices (EDs) among the parties and its offer to plan and fund bilateral Afghan-Pakistani professional education courses at regional studies centers in Germany and the United States.
This plenary session also market the second time that Nato's International Security Assistance Forces (Nato - ISAF) observers attended the session as guests of the Tripartite Commission.
All parties welcomed the observers and look forward to expanding the Nato - ISAF role in the future.