Amid violence ensuing on the sidelines, the government of Afghanistan President Ashraf Gani and the Taliban are set to take their peace talks to the next stage. The new round of dialogues will commence on Thursday in China, with Beijing acting as broker. Pakistan had hosted the inaugural talks between the two sides, locked in conflict for more than a decade, earlier this month with Chinese and American officials present as ‘observers’.
For any negotiation to succeed, the threat of violence must be swept aside. Both negotiating parties must ensure that this caveat is adhered to in order to capitalise on the trust-building steps that they have taken so far. There must be deeper engagement between Kabul and the Taliban. Stability in Afghanistan will also carry an impact across the common border to neighbouring Pakistan, which is currently engaged in a massive counter-terrorism operation to wipe out extremists from its soil. It would, however, be a solid confidence-building measure if innocent lives were not lost during ongoing negotiations. The deaths of 19 civilians and the injury to 40 others in a suicide blast, following a lull in the offensive during Eid, in northern Afghanistan is a case in point.
