Europe News

Pakistan ready to fence off border with Afghanistan: minister

Feb 8, 2007, 14:07 GMT

Berlin - Pakistan intends to go ahead and fence off part of its border with Afghanistan to help stop militants crossing, but has dropped plans to mine sections of the frontier, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said Thursday.

'We have a vital interest in the stabilization of Afghanistan,' the minister said after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

EU cooperation in Afghanistan was one of the issues Kasuri discussed with the German foreign minister, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Other topics included Pakistan's trade relations with the EU, combatting the illegal drug trade and the fight against terrorism, Steinmeier said.

A joint declaration issued after the talks said the first meeting of the EU-Pakistan Joint Commission set up under a cooperation agreement signed in 2004 would be held in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad later this year.