Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s National Security Advisor (NSA) on Tuesday said he would not travel to India for an upcoming conference on Afghanistan on November 10 as he dismissed India’s role as a “peacemaker” in Afghanistan.
India had invited Pakistan to attend the regional conference on Afghanistan being hosted by NSA Ajit Doval. However, while talking to the reporters in Islamabad, Yusuf said that he will not travel to India to attend the conference hosted by India on Afghanistan on November 10.
As per a report by The Express Tribune, in response to a question during the press conference, Yusuf said that a “spoiler” could not take on the role of a “peacemaker.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Office had confirmed the invitation from India, earlier, but said that the decision would be taken at an appropriate time.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had earlier said that Pakistan’s decision would be based on keeping in view the current state of relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Yusuf also said that Pakistan, unlike the West, could not disengage with Afghanistan due to its regional proximity.
“It may be a luxury for the Western world sitting 10,000 miles away (to stay away from Afghanistan) but we do not have any option to disengage from Afghanistan,” he said.
Reiterating Pakistan’s stance, he said that the world should coordinate and constructively engage with the present Afghan government to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Yusuf also said that engagement with Afghanistan was not a political matter for Pakistan but a “humanitarian one and a matter of our national security.”