US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Washington.
WASHINGTON: The US State Department has asked Congress to resume more than $300m in blocked security assistance to Pakistan, officials said on Sunday amid an upswing in relations and a visit by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
“This is part of a long process of restarting security assistance cooperation after implementation was slowed during the bilateral challenges of 2011 and 2012,” deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
The development came as Secretary of State John Kerry met with Sharif, who is making his country’s highest-level official visit to the US in years.
“We have a lot to talk about and the relationship with Pakistan could not be more important,” Kerry said at the start of the meeting. He called Pakistan a “democracy that is working hard to get its economy moving and deal with insurgency and also important to the regional stability.”
The State Department said the pair discussed counterterrorism cooperation, energy, trade and investment, and “the common interest in a secure and stable Afghanistan.” “Both sides agreed on the importance of our continued counterterrorism cooperation, and that extremism is countered in part by opportunities arising from greater economic stability,” the State Department said. US security assistance was interrupted during that period, although $857m in civilian assistance continued to flow, Harf said.
“As part of our annual funding process, throughout the course of this past summer the State Department notified Congress of how it planned to program funds from several different accounts for various programs in Pakistan.
“Funding was notified to Congress following a rigorous planning process over multiple months, to ensure it was in line with both US and Pakistani interests, and would deliver important results for both countries,” she said. Harf said US security assistance would build the capabilities of Pakistan’s security forces, “which is critical to countering violence in the western border regions.”
Sharif will meet President Barack Obama tomorrow. Kerry visited Islamabad in August. Washington needs Pakistan’s cooperation as it prepares to withdraw thousands of pieces of heavy equipment from Afghanistan before Nato combat operations end in late 2014.
It is also looking to Pakistan to try to help with reconciliation efforts between the Taliban and Afghan leaders. The US wants the Pakistani government to do more to crack down on militant havens.
AFP
