If there was peace in Afghanistan, the immediate countries that will benefit from it are our neighbors and near neighbors. In the next two years, NATO troops will be out of Afghanistan and with that the roles of US and other NATO countries will diminish here.

Here is where Afghanistan would need cooperation from countries like Pakistan, Iran, India, China and central Asian states to maintain its peace and stability. In Afghanistan, peace needs more time to nurture and to keep it nurturing, regional countries have a crucial role to play.

Already, regional countries have started grabbing more roles in Afghanistan in post-2014 era. China and India have signed long term partnership agreements with Afghanistan and Pakistan will do the same in the near future. NATO has contributed positively to improving security in Afghanistan by fighting Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents along with Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).

What Afghanistan expects from countries lying around it is that they should do the same as NATO. For the sake of their own security, they must support to strengthen the Afghan government to defeat insurgents and let them not expand their activities inside and outside the Afghan territory.

History has shown that if Afghanistan could not be of itself, it would be of none. The focus of regional countries must be allowing Afghans stand on their own feet by not interfering into their internal affairs. There has been war in Afghanistan in the last three decades and certain countries have had significant role in keeping the fire burning in here.

After the NATO withdrawal, there are expectations that Afghanistan might once again fall into the same kind of chaos as it faced during 90s. But that might never happen, if our neighboring countries stop meddling negatively into the domestic issues of Afghanistan.

Before that NATO withdraws from here, there is a need for a revised regional framework on Afghanistan. It has to be made sure that our regional countries would support the democratically formed government of Afghanistan and the Taliban who are waiting for a second chance to damage the global peace and tranquility. Meanwhile, the Afghan government would require to further boost its ties with countries in the region as these are the countries on which it will depend to further strengthen its military and economic conditions.