In a reaction to the U.S. announcement of suspension of all security assistance to it, Pakistan on Friday said that arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting of goalposts would be counterproductive in addressing common threats.
“We are engaged with the U.S. Administration on the issue of security cooperation and await further details. Impact of U.S. decision on pursuit of common objectives is also likely to emerge more clearly in due course of time. It, however, needs to be appreciated that Pakistan has fought the war against terrorism largely from its own resources which has cost over $120 billion in 15 years. We are determined to continue to do all it takes to secure the lives of our citizens and broader stability in the region,” a statement by the Foreign Office (FO) said.
Pakistan believed that Pakistan-U.S. cooperation in fighting terrorism had directly served the U.S. national security interests as well as the larger interests of international community. “It has helped decimate al-Qaeda and fight other groups who took advantage of ungoverned spaces, a long porous border and posed a common threat to peace. Through a series of major counter-terrorism operations, Pakistan cleared all these areas resulting in elimination of organised terrorist presence leading to significant improvement in security in Pakistan,”it said.
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Efforts towards peace were awaiting reciprocal actions from the Afghan side in terms of clearance of vast stretches of ungoverned spaces on the Afghan side, bilateral border management, repatriation of Afghan Refugees, controlling poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and initiating Afghan-led and owned political reconciliation in Afghanistan.
“Working towards enduring peace requires mutual respect and trust along with patience and persistence. Emergence of new and more deadly groups such as Daesh in Afghanistan call for enhanced international cooperation,” the statement concluded.
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Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.