Thursday, May 23rd 06:29 PM IST

US hopes to have counter-terrorism cooperation with Pak

Jun 21, 2012

Washington: The United States has exuded confidence to continue its negotiations and talks with Pakistan even as it goes through its transition process.

“We’ve been able to work with the Pakistani Government throughout this period. They’ve now announced plans of their own for their own political transition, so our hope and expectation is that we can continue to work through these issues,” the State Department spokesperson, Victoria
Nuland, told reporters at her daily news conference yesterday.

Reuters

The United States, she said, will hold talks with Pakistan on a variety of issues, including the need to have counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan.

The effort is to restore robust cooperation and support Pakistan’s own efforts to root out terrorists, because Pakistanis die at their hands as well, the US official said.

Responding to a question on cross-border terrorism, she said that it is important to have action against terror on the Pakistan side, on the Afghan side and for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and ISAF to work together.

“With regard to the 2014 transition plan, the expectation is that ISAF forces will begin to flow home as Afghan forces take on lead responsibility for security, that we will continue to equip and train them and to support them in paying salaries and all those kinds of things,” she said.

“But the transition is based on an expectation that Afghans will be able to secure themselves using Afghan National Security Forces. So that’s what we are working towards, not a diminution of any kind in capacity, but just  the ability of Afghans to manage their security themselves,” Nuland said.

PTI

Firstpost encourages open discussion and debate, but please adhere to the rules below, before posting. Comments that are found to be in violation of any one or more of the guidelines will be automatically deleted:

Personal attacks/name calling will not be tolerated. This applies to comments directed at the author, other commenters and other politicians/public figures

Please do not post comments that target a specific community, caste, nationality or religion.

While you do not have to use your real name, any commenters using any Firstpost writer's name will be deleted, and the commenter banned from participating in any future discussions.

Comments will be moderated for abusive and offensive language.

Please read our comments and moderation policy before posting