KABUL - CEO Abdullah Abdullah confirmed Monday that President Ashraf Ghani met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Congress of Parties (COP21) conference in Paris this week.
Abdullah said the meeting was at the request of Pakistani officials.
"A delegation of Pakistan's National Awami Party dispatched a request from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, requesting a meeting between the two leaders to be conducted on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Paris," Abdullah Abdullah said.
The meeting is taking place amid strained bilateral relations between the two countries following a barrage of deadly attacks on the capital Kabul a few months ago – attacks that Afghan officials say were planned in Pakistan.
Annoyed by Pakistan's controversial role in the war against insurgency, some Afghan political commentators have stressed the need for a firm stance to be adopted by the Afghan government against Pakistan, asking Ghani to raise Afghanistan's concerns with the Pakistani side.
"Government must only negotiate with those who do not intend to cheat us and follow tricks," MP Abdul Rauf Enaami said.
"The president must focus on clear interventions of Pakistan and presence of Pakistani military generals in the battlefields and settle the issue," MP Mohammad Azim Hussaini said.
"I believe that the U.S has already realized that it should press Pakistan to endorse the peace process, because the peace is in the interests of both of us," MP Naqibullah Fayeq said.
After the establishment of the National Unity Government, the leaders had looked forward to stronger ties with Islamabad and had hoped the neighboring nation would contribute honestly towards the fight against insurgency and help bring the Taliban to the peace talks tables.
Despite efforts to foster better ties by Ghani and Abdullah the Kabul-Islamabad relations crumbled in the wake of a series of coordinated attacks on Afghan cities, forcing Ghani to change his flexible policy.
The news of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's death, two years earlier, also scuppered peace talks plans.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 will be held in Le Bourget, from November 30 to December 11. (Tolonews)