US hopes to have counter-terrorism cooperation with Pak

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. [caption id=“attachment_351722” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Reuters”] [/caption] 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