Representatives of Pakistan, China, and Russia on Friday called on the US and the Taliban to return to the negotiation table at the earliest and reach an agreement with an aim to end the 18-year long war in Afghanistan.

The parties believe that it was a universal and sincere demand of the Afghan people to end the ongoing war and achieve sustainable peace, Xinhua news reported, while citing a joint statement that was issued after the second quadrilateral consultation on the Afghan issue.

The discussion in this regard was held during the four-party consultations between representatives of US, China, Pakistan and Russia on the Afghan peace process, Radio Pakistan reported.

According to a joint statement released at the end of the meeting held in Moscow, the participants committed to working with Afghanistan and the Taliban to reach a comprehensive and sustainable peace agreement between the two so as to end strife in the country.

China, Russia and Pakistan support the resumption of negotiations between the US and the Taliban and hoped them to reach an agreement as soon as possible so as to pave the way for internal negotiations among the parties in Afghanistan, the statement said.

The four countries urged all conflicting parties to immediately reduce violence for the sake of creating a good atmosphere for negotiations, the statement further said.

The countries also called on the Afghan government and the Taliban to exchange a considerable number of prisoners at the beginning of the internal negotiations.

The quartet emphasized that any peace agreement should include the protection of the rights of women, adults, children and ethnic minorities, and should respond to the strong aspirations of the Afghan people in economic, social, political, development and legislative spheres, the statement said.

They called upon all Afghan people to ensure that their country is not used by international terrorist forces to endanger the security of any other country.

China is willing to host an intra-Afghan dialogue in Beijing and invite political figures from various parties, including the Afghan government representatives, the opposition leaders and the Taliban, the statement said.

After nine rounds of peace talks held in Qatar’s capital city of Doha, the US and the Taliban had reached upon an agreement “in principle”. The negotiations, however, were called off in the aftermath of several Taliban-led terror attacks in Kabul that left scores dead, including a US soldier.

The Taliban had never agreed to end their violent campaign against Afghan and foreign forces while negotiations were taking place. Sixteen US troops have been killed this year.

In 2001, US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan because the militants had given safe haven to the Al-Qaeda network to plan the attacks on the US on September 11.

(With inputs from agencies)