News
Friday, March 04, 2011
Mullen urges sustainability, depth in Pak-US relationsWASHINGTON: The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, has underlined the need for building a trustful and sustained relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
Mullen, who is chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there has been a marked improvement in Pak-US coordination against militant activity along the Afghan border in recent years.
“As I have focused on this area, it has not been Afghanistan alone. It has been the region,” he said during a testimony before a House Appropriations Defence sub-committee. Continuing, Mullen said, “I think that’s important for all of us... and I believe the national interest that we have, the relationship that we have with the Pakistan military has improved remarkably over the last two or three years. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have our significant challenges.”
In this respect, Mullen cited a recent meeting with Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and noted that “between Gen Petraeus (US commander in Afghanistan) and Gen Kayani, was a level of coordination across that border that no one could have imagined a couple years ago.” “Now, that has been the result of an awful lot of hard work to improve the relationship and the trust — and we’re not there, by any means, where we need to be. But we broke that in 1989, 1990. We have this gap, and I believe that we have to sustain that for the long term.” app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk