Afghan President Hamid Karzai met Pakistan’s army chief and foreign minister on Wednesday for talks hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry

Afghan President Hamid Karzai met Pakistan’s army chief and foreign minister on Wednesday for talks hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at easing tension between the two neighboring countries before the end of NATO’s Afghanistan combat mission.

Afghanistan has grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan over efforts to pursue a peace process involving the Taliban, suggesting that Islamabad is intent to keep Afghanistan unstable until foreign combat forces leave the country at the end of 2014.

Kerry is hosting the talks in Brussels involving Karzai and Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Foreign Secretary Jalil Jilani.

At the start of the meeting at the residence of the US ambassador to NATO on the outskirts of the Belgian capital, Kerry told reporters that Afghanistan was in “a critical transformational period.”

“(I am) very, very pleased the President could travel, General Kayani and Secretary Jilani could take the time to be here,” he said. “We are very, very hopeful for a productive series of discussions.”

Karzai called it an important meeting and said he was glad Kayani and Jilani had found the time to travel to Brussels.

“Let’s hope forward for the best,” he told reporters.

For his part, Jilani called it a very important meeting, stating that “we are looking forward to a very productive and forward-looking discussion.”

The talks come a day after a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels at which its Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Pakistan must crack down on militants who use the country as a sanctuary to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

The meeting follows weeks of tension with Pakistan over their 2,600-km border and stalled peace efforts.

Afghan officials say Pakistan has a long history of supporting Afghanistan’s Taliban and other insurgent factions. Pakistan has in turn accused Afghanistan of giving safe haven to militants on the Afghan side of the border.

US officials hope that Kerry, who has a good relationship with Karzai, can bring the parties back to the negotiating table and make constructive progress on an issue that has long-term security implications for Washington.

Rasmussen held talks with Karzai at Nato headquarters on Tuesday which focused on finding a legal framework for the NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan

Most of the US-led occupation forces are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, 13 years after the United States invaded Afghanistan. The military powers will be mainly controlled then by the Afghani army.

The US Administration relies on progress in negotiations with Karzai to legalize its occupation so that it can decide how many US occupying troops will remain in Afghanistan.