US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan amid efforts to restart peace talks with the Taliban, VOANews reported.

“The aim is to still get a peace agreement at some point, a political agreement, that is the best way forward,” Esper told reporters traveling with him Sunday.

Last month, President Donald Trump abruptly called off yearlong US-Taliban talks just when the two adversaries had come close to signing a peace agreement that could have ended the 18-year-old Afghan war.

Trump had declared the peace process “dead.”