Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said terrorism is a transnational threat that can only be defeated through intelligence-sharing and coordinated effective border management.

Pakistan’s media stated that Bajwa met his Afghan counterpart Gen. Sharif Yaftali on the sidelines of a Quadrilateral Counter Terrorism Coordination Mechanism (QCCM) meeting in Tajikistan on Sunday and discussed the situation in Afghanistan.

According to Dawn News, participants at the meeting signed an outline cooperative mechanism which will come into force after its endorsement by respective governments.

Bajwa offered to form a Pakistan and Afghan army working group to jointly work and formulate security recommendations for the government-level discussion aimed at addressing mutual concerns.

Dawn News stated that Yaftali agreed to the proposal.

However, Afghan officials have not yet commented on the proposal.

Bajwa reportedly claimed that Pakistan had already cleared all its areas indiscriminately and has started unilateral border security measures including fencing.

Besides border security management, other key factors discussed was that of returning Afghan refugees to their homeland.

He also reassured the Afghan side that Pakistan was open to any suggestion that facilitated peace in Afghanistan, reported Dawn News.

The meeting was attended by senior military leadership of member countries Gen Li Zuocheng from China, General Sobirzoda Imomali Abdurrahim from Tajikistan and General Sharif Yaftali from Afghanistan and General Qamar Javed Bajwa from Pakistan.

This comes after US President Donald Trump unveiled his new war strategy for Afghanistan last week.

In the wake of this, Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US Forces and NATO in Afghanistan, told TOLOnews on Saturday that the US knows the Afghan Taliban leadership is in the Quetta and Peshawar areas.

He said the issue of outside sanctuaries has to be addressed but that it was “being addressed in private between the US government and the Pakistani government - but it does need to be addressed.”

“Support for terrorists and insurgents has to be reduced, has to be stopped,” said Nicholson.

On whether a diplomatic solution could be found, he said this was a possibility but that a significant military effort inside the country would be carried out and that together the US would work with the Afghan government to increase its military capabilities.  

“I am primarily focused on activities inside Afghanistan,” but other officials are looking into the issue of sanctuaries in Pakistan, he said.

According to him, the issue of sanctuaries was a serious one and one that needed to be addressed.