The European Union is trying to create consensus – in the region and in the world – to bring peace to Afghanistan, the European Union’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Ambassador Roland Kobia said at a ceremony on Thursday.

He said the countries in the region and around the world should think about helping Afghanistan instead of competing in the country.

“My mandate as the special envoy will focus on the regional and international dimension of conflict in Afghanistan. There are obviously a number of countries in the region but also beyond the region that are trying to support peace in Afghanistan and this will be my mandate to try to bring a consensus around the countries to put the international community on a momentum that is a constructive positive one with the overarching objective,” he said.

The European envoy suggested that Afghanistan should continue nation-building and for that it needs security.

“One thing that I have taken out of this is that you need to build a fertile ground for people to believe in the fact that peace is going to come. Hope is a very important issue,” he said.

At the same event, the High Peace Council deputy chairperson Habiba Sarabi said they continue their efforts to resume peace talks with anti-government armed militants.

“No doubt, there are hopes for the peace talks… and the people of Afghanistan should not be hopeless. We will not be tired from our efforts,” she said.

“Peace with Taliban is not providing results because they (Taliban) are not trusting the negotiations,” said Jawed Faisal, the spokesman for Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.