ISLAMABAD: US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan James Dobbins arrived in Islamabad Monday to finalise the agenda of a meeting scheduled to take place between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and US president Barack Obama, DawnNews reported.
The US envoy is scheduled to hold special talks with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz. During the discussion, the two diplomats will finalise the agenda of the meeting to be held between Sharif and Obama in Washington on Oct 23.
Moreover, Aziz and Dobbins will also finalise potential points to be raised during the meeting between Prime Minister Sharif and the US president.
The meeting between the two diplomats will also discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
It may be mentioned that after marathon talks in Kabul between President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State John Kerry on Oct 13, it was decided that a long-delayed security deal on the future of US forces in Afghanistan is close to being completed.
Earlier last month, Dobbins had also acknowledged that Islamabad had increased its support to the Afghan peace process.
He had also recognised Pakistan’s role in facilitating direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
“Pakistan has also, particularly over the last six months or so, become active in supporting an Afghan reconciliation process and urging the Afghan Taliban to participate in that process,” he had said in September.