Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Germany urges Pakistan to attend Afghan talks


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BERLIN: The German government has urged Pakistan to reverse its decision not to attend international talks on Afghanistan in Germany next week as a result of a cross-border Nato air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, a German official said on Wednesday.
“Pakistan itself has a big interest in the Afghan conference being a success,” foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told a regular German government news conference.
The Pakistan government said on Tuesday it was pulling out of the Dec. 5 conference on the future of Afghanistan in Bonn, “but at the same time they have not yet formally withdrawn from the conference”, Peschke said.
He said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the diplomats organising the talks were in contact with Pakistan, which has called the weekend attack an unprovoked act of aggression.