RASC: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said in a meeting with Tajikistan’s Defense Minister on Tuesday, July 4, that the two countries are facing similar “security threats and challenges” due to their neighborhood with Afghanistan.
He said that he wants to increase the intelligence and technical cooperation with the armed forces of Tajikistan.
Pakistan’s state news agency Associated Press reported that Khawaja Asif told Shir Ali Mirza that “all issues related to Afghanistan should be resolved through peace and negotiation.”
He welcomed Tajikistan’s role in strengthening peace and stability in the region.
Although the Taliban group said that they will not allow terrorist groups to work against neighboring countries from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and other neighboring countries have expressed concern about the presence of groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan.
This is despite the fact that the Pakistani media has published several reports of the Pakistani Taliban’s attack on the Pakistani security forces in the past few months.
Islamabad said that TTP organizes and leads these attacks against Pakistani forces using its sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has asked Tajikistan to cooperate in enhancing their intelligence capabilities and skills to eliminate security threats.
The Minister of Defense of Tajikistan has also announced cooperation to strengthen bilateral relations with Pakistan.
It should be mentioned that several times before; the neighboring countries had expressed their concern about the transformation of Afghanistan’s territory under the control of the Taliban group into a safe haven for terrorist groups.
Not long ago, Russia said that Afghanistan under the administration of the Taliban group is a serious threat to the security of the region and the world.
However, despite some attacks carried out by ISIS in Afghanistan under the administration of this group, the Taliban still deny the existence of terrorist groups.
