Trilateral Summit on Counter-Terrorism
On September 27, President Karzai joined President Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in an Iftar dinner. The three leaders discussed enhancing Afghan-Pakistani cooperation in security and intelligence matters to fight and eliminate the sources of terrorism that lie outside Afghanistan. President Karzai proposed two jirgas (tribal councils) on each side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border be convened to discuss means of empowering traditional legitimate leadership and strengthening civil society. Presidents Karzai and Musharraf agreed to attend these tribal councils in hopes of finding a solution to fight the sources of terrorism. Upon returning from this successful visit to the United States, President Karzai said, “The objective of my visit to America was to show to the world that the campaign against terrorism would not be successful unless we eliminated the roots of terror, terrorist training centers and sources of terrorism in the region. Our talks were useful. I hope we can achieve the desired results from these meetings to help ensure a secure and healthy Afghanistan. We will work hard to defend our land against terror.” The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as their Ambassadors in Washington, are pursuing ways to implement the proposed tribal councils.
