A joint Afghanistan-Pakistan parliamentary group has recently visited Germany for one week (September 15-22) on the invitation of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany on Tuesday announced that Germany continues to work towards improving relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In this connection, 16 senior Parliamentarians and Senators from Afghanistan and Pakistan were welcomed at the Federal Foreign Office by State Secretary Reinhard Silberberg.
The trustful and friendly Pak-Afghan relations are one of the key factors in stabilising Afghanistan and indeed the entire South Asian region. One of the visit's central aim was to enhance the parliamentarians' mutual relations. During the visit, Parliamentarians and Senators focused on improving relations with German parliamentary institutions.
The G8 initiative aimed at improving Afghanistan-Pakistan relations was proposed by Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Potsdam in 2007. Since then the G8 countries have, also with the support of the current Japanese Presidency, launched more than 150 projects.
The projects range from enhancing Afghanistan-Pakistan border surveillance co-operation to exchanging journalists and building up youth networks. Another major objective was improvement of co-operation between the two parliaments and the creation of working links between their administrations. The joint visit was funded by the Federal Foreign Office and organised in co-operation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, German Embassy added.