News
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Pakistan-US strategic dialogue
Trio agrees to keep national interest supreme
* Zardari, Gilani, Kayani want US to address issues like drone attacks, reimbursement of Coalition Support Fund arrears and RoZ legislation
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani on Saturday deliberated on the forthcoming Pak-US strategic dialogue in the backdrop of drone attacks, reimbursement of Coalition Support Fund arrears and the reconstruction opportunity zones legislation.
The meeting, held at the Presidency, was also attended by Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Finance Secretary Salman Siddique. The Pak-US strategic dialogue is scheduled to be held in Washington soon.
The president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the last round of Pak-US strategic dialogue was held in Islamabad last July to intensify strategic engagement and pursue comprehensive sectoral track cooperation under the strategic dialogue process. It may be recalled that various areas of mutual cooperation, including security, defence, socio-economic projects, enhancement of power generation capacity and infrastructure, were thoroughly deliberated during the sectoral meetings in the last round of the dialogue.
Babar said the government wanted to pursue multifaceted comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and address issues such as drone attacks, reimbursement of CSF arrears and the ROZ legislation. He said the challenges being faced by the two countries vis-à-vis the security situation would also be discussed at the strategic dialogue to further promote intelligence sharing and capacity enhancement of security forces. He said the president has maintained that Pakistan had suffered a colossal loss in the ongoing fight against militancy while the recent floods have further added to the economic woes. He said the situation called for help by the international community, especially the US, to support Pakistan and advocate its case for greater access to its products in the international markets, Babar added.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk