News
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Pak, US agree on improving cooperation at Afghan border
* US defence secretary regrets killing of Pak soldiers in NATO raid
* Appreciates Pakistan’s military campaign against terrorists
WASHINGTON: At the start of three days of US-Pakistan talks, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani agreed in a 30-minute meeting on the need to improve cooperation on the Afghan-Pakistani border, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said on Wednesday.
“We are both very active along the border and they talked at some length about how we can better coordinate our operations on our respective sides of the border,” Morrell told the media.
US and Pakistani military leaders discussed how to better coordinate combat operations along the Afghan border, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, in the aftermath of a cross-border NATO raid that strained relations with Islamabad.
Cooperation between military commanders had already improved on the border, “but this incident clearly indicates that there is more work to be done,” said Morrell, referring to the helicopter raid that left three Pakistani soldiers dead.
Gates also repeated Washington’s regret over the incident, and “expressed his condolences to the families” of the soldiers who died, he said.
The US defence secretary stressed that the shooting of the border guards was “unintentional” and that the US military had been working with the Pakistanis to make sure it never happens again, he said.
The raid sparked outrage in Islamabad, but NATO said coalition troops fighting terrorists in Afghanistan retained the right to “self-defence” if attacked.
More than 150,000 NATO and US troops in Afghanistan are battling a nine-year Taliban insurgency that often uses Pakistan as a sanctuary.
Pakistan closed a key supply route through the Khyber Pass after the raid, and Taliban terrorists promptly escalated attacks on allied convoys. Pakistan re-opened the crossing to NATO supplies on October 10.
The raid marked a departure for US military forces, which tend to refrain from chasing terrorists across the border into Pakistan. But the CIA carries out frequent bombing raids against al Qaeda and Taliban figures using unmanned aircrafts, a campaign that US officials will not discuss publicly.
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, also attended the meeting along with the third ranking official at the Pentagon, Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defence for policy.
Gates expressed “appreciation” for Pakistan’s military campaign against the terrorists on its soil and underlined Washington’s desire to build a long-term partnership that did not focus solely on security issues, Morrell said.
The Pentagon chief told the Pakistanis that the US wanted “to elevate this relationship from the day-to-day ups and downs that it has historically experienced,” he said.
Morrell also confirmed that the two discussed possible sales of US military equipment and other military assistance to Pakistan.
The two sides “talked about security assistance to Pakistan,” he said, without offering details. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk