Afghanistan proximity talks: "intense, serious and fruitful".

Afghanistan proximity talks: "intense, serious and fruitful"

Proximity talks on the situation relating to Afghanistan, held from 20 to 24 June in Geneva, are to reconvene on 27 August.

Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs Diego Cordovez, Personal Representative of Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar on this matter, conducted the negotiations. He described them as "very intense, serious and fruitful".

The Afghan delegation, led by Foreign Minister Shah Mohammed Dost, and the Pakistani delgation, headed by Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub-Khan, were present at the Palais des Nations in separate rooms. Mr. Cordovez, who shuttled between the two chambers, reported on 25 June that the attitude of these two interlocutors was positive.

Negotiations, he said, focused on the four draft instruments that would contain a comprehensive political negotiated settlement. The new approach, designed to break the deadlock that had existed before, "was working", he said, and progress had been made. The interlocutors identified problems in their contexts and settled a number of issues. That would facilitate the adoption of political decisions that needed to be made to achieve a settlement that would be "implementable", Mr. Cordovez said.

The process showed that very difficult problems existed and difficult political decisions still needed to be adopted. Since he was in the middle of an extremely sensitive negotiation, he could not discuss the substance of the talks; however, concrete amendments had been made to concrete texts, and the interlocutors were reviewing other matters.

In acccordance with established practice, the Iranian Government was kept informed through the Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

Mr. Cordovez said he was encouraged that both the United States and the Soviet Union had expressed support for the negotiating process through the United Nations. That was bound to have a positive impact on the present process.

Visit to area: In preparation for the talks, Mr. Cordovez visited the area from 25 to 30 May. In Islamabad, he met with Pakistan President Zia ul-Haq, Prime Minister Muhammed Khan and other senior Government officials. In Kabul, he met with Afghan President Babrak Karmal and Foreign Minister Dost. According to Mr. Cordovez, it had not been possible for him to visit Teheran as planned because of "technical, logistical reasons".

Mr. Cordovez said that in December 1984, he had...