Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer,has underlined the need for buiding a trusting and sustained relationship between the nited States and Pakistan, cooperation between whom is considered critical to the outcome of the decade-old Afghan conflict. ullen, who is chairman Joint Chiefs Staff, said there has been a marked improvement in U.S.-Pakistani coordination against militant activity along the porous Afghan border in recent years.“As I have focused on this area, it has not been Afghanistan alone. It has been the region,” he said answering a lawmaker’s question in a testimony before a House Appropriations Defense sub-committee.
Continuing, Mullen said, “I think that’s important for all of us, and that, as we move forward here and underpin the strategy and the reason—and I believe the national interest that we have, the relationship that we have with the Pakistan military, which I have spent an extraordinary amount of my personal time on, has improved remarkably over the last two or three years.”
However, he added, “that doesn’t mean we don’t have our significant challenges.” In this respect, Mullen cited a recent meeting with Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and noted that “between General Petraeus (US commander in Afghanistan) and General Kayani, was a level of coordination across that border that no one could have imagined a couple years ago.”
“Now, that has been the result of an awful lot of hard work to improve the relationship and the trust—and we’re not there, by any means, where we need to be. But we broke that in 1989, 1990. We have this gap, and I, just like the secretary, I believe that we have to sustain that for the long term.”
In the context of forging ties with Pakistan, Mullen also referred to the importance of the nuclear-capable country being able to avert any situation, where violent extremists may gain an upper hand.
“So I believe we’ve got to continue to work that, we’ve got to continue to invest in it.It’s not going to happen fast enough for any of us, and our ability to work that has a significant impact on what’s going to happen in Afghanistan as well.”
Mullen said as a result of the U.S. strategy al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are under pressure in the region.
However, he added, “that doesn’t mean we don’t have our significant challenges.” In this respect, Mullen cited a recent meeting with Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and noted that “between General Petraeus (US commander in Afghanistan) and General Kayani, was a level of coordination across that border that no one could have imagined a couple years ago.”
“Now, that has been the result of an awful lot of hard work to improve the relationship and the trust—and we’re not there, by any means, where we need to be. But we broke that in 1989, 1990. We have this gap, and I, just like the secretary, I believe that we have to sustain that for the long term.”
In the context of forging ties with Pakistan, Mullen also referred to the importance of the nuclear-capable country being able to avert any situation, where violent extremists may gain an upper hand.
“So I believe we’ve got to continue to work that, we’ve got to continue to invest in it.It’s not going to happen fast enough for any of us, and our ability to work that has a significant impact on what’s going to happen in Afghanistan as well.”
Mullen said as a result of the U.S. strategy al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are under pressure in the region.
“So it is in fact working both sides. And in fact al Qaeda is in much tougher shape than it was a year or two ago. Some of the Taliban organizations are certainly much more concerned about their future than they were as recently as a year ago because we finally got the resources right, we finally got the people right, we have the strategy right, and we’re starting to turn.”
Source: APP
