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Kabul willing to consider Pak offer to train forces
[Dawn] Putting aside years of mistrust, the Afghan government indicated on Monday its willingness to consider Pakistan's longstanding offer of training its armed forces.

This sense was conveyed during Afghan defence delegation's meeting with Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at the military headquarters.

The Afghan delegation led by Defence Minister Gen Bismillah Khan Muhammadi, which is on a five-day visit to Pakistan, included Major General Afzal Aman, Director General of Military Operations; Major General Abdul Manan Farahi, Director General Military Intelligence and Investigation; Major General Payanda Mohammad Nazim, Inspector General of Training; and Major General Aminullah Karim, Commandant of National Defence College, Afghanistan.

The rare visit of the high-level Afghan defence delegation denoted a paradigm shift in Afghanistan's perceptions about Pakistan.

Because of years of disinformation, Afghan authorities had always sceptically looked towards Pakistan believing that the former ally of Taliban was opposed to the current set-up and was backing Taliban insurgency.

It was this opinion that prevented Afghanistan from considering Pakistani offer to train its troops, which was originally made in 2010 by Gen Kayani. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had at a meeting with journalists last February dismissed the offer as a non-starter till Pakistan rebuilt confidence by addressing Kabul's concerns about its involvement with Taliban terrorists.

Posted by: Fred 2013-01-30
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=361217