ISLAMABAD, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have agreed to revive the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States for promotion of peace and security, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
Sharif met with Ghani in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which was seen as an ice-breaking meeting in view of the tense relationship between the two neighbors.
The QCG had been almost dysfunctional after a U.S. drone strike killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in May last year, just three days after the member countries met in Islamabad to discuss peaceful solution to the Afghan militancy.
However, Pakistani officials believed that the killing of the Taliban chief had not only badly affected the QCG process but also had negative impact on efforts to encourage the Taliban to come to the negotiation table.
In a positive development, the Pakistani and Afghan leaders "agreed to use QCG to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan," the Foreign Ministry said in Islamabad.
"The two leaders agreed to use QCG mechanism as well as bilateral channels to undertake specific actions against terror groups and to evolve, through mutual consultations, a mechanism to monitor and verify such actions," it added.
Sharif stressed the importance of reconciliation and a politically negotiated settlement as the best solution to the Afghan conflict. In this context, he highlighted the efforts undertaken by Pakistan for facilitating an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process, according to the ministry.
The prime minister joined Ghani in condemning the recent terror attacks, especially the wave of violence in Kabul following a truck bomber in the center of the capital city last week resulting in loss of life and injury of hundreds of people.
Sharif said that terrorism remained a common threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan, adding close cooperation between the two countries was important for eliminating the scourge of terrorism from the region.
