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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to extend a ceasefire during talks in Istanbul after the worst border clashes between the neighbors in years, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Friday, adding that the onus was now on Kabul to take action against militant groups.

The fresh round of negotiations, facilitated by Turkiye and other friendly nations, was aimed at easing border clashes that left dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants dead, before a temporary ceasefire was reached on Oct. 19. A second round of talks that started in Istanbul on Oct. 25 failed to reach breakthrough earlier this week, before Turkiye announced on Thursday evening that the ceasefire would continue. 

The clashes erupted after Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan against Pakistani Taliban militants it says are based there and responsible for attacks on its forces. Kabul condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and denies sheltering the group. The border, which runs more than 2,600 km (1,600 miles), has long been a source of friction with frequent skirmishes and mutual accusations over militant sanctuaries.

Information Minister Tarar described the outcome of the Istanbul talks as a “victory” for Pakistan and said the responsibility now rested with the Afghan Taliban to take concrete action against militant groups, the state-run Pakistan TV Digital reported.

“Pakistan’s stance has been clear, support for terrorism must end. A mechanism for monitoring, verification, and enforcement in case of violations will also be implemented,” he said, thanking Qatar and Turkiye for their mediation.

“All parties have agreed to put in place a monitoring and verification mechanism that will ensure maintenance of peace and impose penalties on the violating party,” Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry said of the October 25–30 talks.

It added that a follow-up meeting would be held in Istanbul on November 6 to decide how the mechanism will be implemented, and that Turkiye and Qatar “stand ready to continue cooperation with both sides for lasting peace and stability.”

Kabul government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a separate statement shortly before midnight in Istanbul confirming the conclusion of the talks and saying both sides had agreed to continue discussions in future meetings.

A senior Pakistani security official, requesting anonymity, said Islamabad viewed the Istanbul understanding as a welcome step but a conditional truce, hinging on verifiable action by Kabul.

“Pakistan welcomes the interim understanding reached in Istanbul under the mediation of Türkiye and Qatar,” the official said. “But this ceasefire is not open-ended or unconditional. The single litmus test for its continuation is that Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan and will take clear, verifiable and effective steps against [militants].”

The official added that Pakistan expected credible evidence of action, such as dismantling of hideouts, disruption of logistical networks, and prosecution of militant leadership, to be reported through the monitoring and verification mechanism agreed under the mediators’ auspices.

“If Afghanistan fails to deliver verifiable proof of agreed steps, or if militants continue to launch attacks from Afghan soil, Pakistan will deem the ceasefire violated and reserves all options to safeguard its sovereignty and citizens,” the official warned.

He said Pakistan had entered the new phase “in good faith, but with realism,” given past patterns of cross-border violence.

“This arrangement is a conditional truce — one which hinges on demonstrable responsibility by the Afghan side,” he said. “Failure to meet that responsibility will require Pakistan to revert to other measures.”

The clashes erupted on Oct. 11 after Pakistan conducted airstrikes on what it called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan-affiliated targets in Afghanistan. Kabul said it was a violation of its sovereignty.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil by militant groups, particularly the TTP that has stepped up attacks inside Pakistan in recent years. Kabul denies the allegation.

• With inputs from Reuters
• This article originally appaeared on

GYOENGJU: President Xi Jinping on Friday invited Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to China, in the first formal talks between the nations’ leaders since 2017, before also holding first discussions with Japan’s new premier.
Canada’s relations with China are among the worst of any Western nation but both are at the sharp end of Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught, even after Xi and the US leader’s deal Thursday to dial back tensions.
“Recently, with the joint efforts of both sides, China-Canada relations have shown a recovery toward a trend of positive development,” Xi told Carney as they met at an APEC summit in South Korea, inviting the Canadian to visit China.
“China is willing to work with Canada to bring China-Canada relations back to the right track,” Xi added.
“In recent years, we have not been as engaged,” said Carney, accepting Xi’s invitation.
Tha Canadian leader pointed to “constructive and pragmatic dialogue” as a route to addressing their “current issues.”
He also cited dialoque as a way “to help build a more sustainable, inclusive international system.”
Ties fell into a deep freeze in 2018 after the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver and China’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges.
In July, Carney announced an additional 25 percent tariff on steel imports that contain steel melted and poured in China.
Beijing announced the following month it would impose a painful temporary customs duty of 75.8 percent on Canadian canola imports.
Canada is among the world’s top producers of canola, an oilseed crop that is used to make cooking oil, animal meal and biodiesel fuel.
But Canada and China have both been heavily targeted by Trump’s global trade onslaught.
Trump said on Thursday he would halve fentanyl-related tariffs on China to 10 percent while Xi agreed to keep rare earths flowing and boost imports of US soybeans.
But the average US tariff on Chinese imports remains at 47 percent, Trump said.
The US president on Saturday said he was hiking tariffs on Canadian goods by an additional 10 percent and terminated all trade talks.
This followed what Trump called a “fake” anti-tariff ad campaign that featured the late ex-president Ronald Reagan.
“(The) old world of steady expansion of rules-based liberalized trade and investment, a world on which so much of our nations’ prosperity — very much Canada’s included — (is based), that world is gone,” Carney told the APEC gathering.
He also talked up Canada’s potential as an “energy superpower” and major supplier of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Asia.

- Japan -

Later Xi met Japan’s first woman premier, Sanae Takaichi, for the first time since she was appointed this month.
Chinese state media quoted Xi as saying that China was ready to work with Japan for constructive, stable bilateral ties that meet requirements of new era.
Takaichi is a regular visitor to the flashpoint Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan’s war dead is seen as a China hawk, although recently she has toned down her remarks.
But in her first policy address last Friday, she still declared that the military activities of China — and North Korea and Russia — “have become a grave concern.”
She announced that Japan would be spending two percent of gross domestic product on defense this fiscal year — two years ahead of schedule — prompting criticism from China.
She is also a strong backer of Taiwan and backs security cooperation with the self-ruled island.
Japanese media said that Takaichi was expected to convey to Xi grave concerns over China’s behavior, including around the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyu Islands by China.
She was also expected to press for the early release of Japanese citizens detained in China and request that the safety of Japanese expatriates in China be ensured, the reports said.
Her public comments at the start of the meeting focused only on reducing “concerns” and increasing “mutual understanding and cooperation.”
Japanese industry is also keen to ensure that supplies of rare earths from China — which have become a football in Xi’s trade tussle with Trump — keep flowing.
“It could be a frosty get-to-know-you meeting as Xi Jinping has not sent a congratulatory message to Takaichi, wary of her reputation as a China hawk,” Yee Kuang Heng, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, told AFP.
“Overall though, stability is a shared priority,” Heng said.