RPT: PREVIEW - Second Round Of Moscow Format Talks On Afghanistan Reconciliation Takes Place Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2018) The second round of the Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan, aimed at securing peace and facilitating the national reconciliation process in the country, is set to take place on Friday at the level of deputy foreign ministers and special representatives.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Saturday that consultations involving the Afghan High Peace Council and the political office of the Taliban movement in Doha would take place, with no final document expected to be signed. The consultations will commence with an opening speech from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The first round of consultations took place in mid-April last year, and was attended by deputy foreign ministers and special representatives of 11 countries interested in reaching a peace settlement in Afghanistan. The United States declined the invitation to attend, citing a lack of an Afghanistan strategy at the time.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sent representatives of the Afghan High Peace Council, an organization that is part of the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Programme set up under former President Hamid Karzai to support the peace process and persuade insurgents to renounce violence. The Council is involved in outreach activities on the international level and engages in the peace process in the country.

Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sibghatullah Ahmadi, told Sputnik that the High Peace Council representatives sent to the talks would not represent Afghanistan's government.

At the head of the delegation of the High Peace Council will be Deputy Chairman Hajji Deen Mohammad, along with three other council members. The five person delegation from the Taliban political office in Doha, according to a communique issued by the movement, will include Al Haj Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, the head of the Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

A spokesman of the High Peace Council told Sputnik that the second round of consultations in the Moscow format would focus on organizing direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, with the Afghan foreign ministry expressing hope that this would be the case.

In a communique published by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban radical movement hopes to outline its position and to find a peaceful resolution to existing problems. The delegation from the movement will not be conducting negotiations with the delegation from Kabul.

Apart from a delegation from the High Peace Council and representatives from the political office of the Taliban movement in Doha, the Russian Foreign Ministry has named ten other countries who have been invited to join.

Representatives from China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the United States have been invited to join the meeting, aside from the delegations in Afghanistan.

The Indian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it will attend the consultations in the Moscow format on the non-official level. A delegation from Pakistan will be led at the talks by the Foreign Ministry's Additional Secretary for Afghanistan and West Asia Muhemmed Aejaz. Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister Zohir Ozod Saidzoda will attend the talks, as well as the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs Deng Xijun.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Russia was making every effort to create conditions for bilateral contacts to take place during the Moscow format consultations.

Dr. Arne Strand, a political scientist at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, told Sputnik on Thursday that the Moscow format talks on Afghanistan ensures that the entire region participates in the peace settlement process.

"I hope it is one step further in what is probably a longer process. Bringing the neighboring countries into the process is also an ability to raise some of their concerns, what kind of solution could be in Afghanistan, and then a possibility then to contribute to what could then be a longer term peace settlement," Strand said.

Strand added that the participation of a US representative, as confirmed by the US Embassy in Moscow, in this round of the Moscow format talks gives them added significance.

The special representative of the Afghan president in central Asian affairs, Mohammad Shakir Kargar, told Sputnik that most importantly the talks should contribute to a peace settlement in the country.

"The most important thing is that the Moscow format will give positive results to the peace settlement in Afghanistan," Kargar said.

Previously a multinational conference on the future of Afghanistan set to take place in Moscow on September 4 was called off after a phone call between President Ashraf Ghani and Lavrov in late August. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the reason for the postponement was the need of the Afghan side to work out a consolidated position on a Moscow format meeting.