[Al Arabiya Latest] The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan will seek closer cooperation in the fight against militants during a summit in Istanbul on Monday, but a plan to reach out to Taliban insurgents will likely dominate the talks.Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will meet ahead of a London conference where Afghanistan and the international community were set to agree a framework for Kabul to take responsibility for its own security.
The two men will hold a bilateral meeting before three-way talks with host President Abdullah Gul of Turkey, which has been working behind the scenes to repair relations between Islamabad and Kabul, notably over negotiations with the Taliban.
"We have been working with the Afghans and the Pakistanis on this," said a Turkish official who asked not to be named.
Pakistan has long played an important role in Afghan affairs, having nurtured the Afghan Taliban during the 1990s, but Kabul remains suspicious that Islamabad is pursuing its own agenda in the country to the detriment of Afghanistan.