ISLAMABAD, 27 September — Pakistan expects “an even-handed approach” from the United States in its political dealings in the Indian subcontinent, official sources said yesterday. Defense Secretary Hamid Nawaz expressed the view during a meeting with US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith. The Pakistan-US Defense Consultative Group (DCG) met in Islamabad to discuss the resumption of military cooperation between the two countries.
Nawaz sought the same treatment as India receives while discussing tensions on the India and Pakistan border and along the Line of Control in the disputed state of Kashmir. Tensions intensified after a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament last December. Kashmir was “a human rather than territorial issue”, Nawaz told the US official, according to a press release issued after the plenary session of the DCG.
Nawaz expressed the hope that the DCG would revive “a mutually productive relationship at all levels” that existed before the US cut off all economic and military assistance to Pakistan in 1990, in retaliation for the country’s nuclear missile testing program.
Pakistan regained the status as a key US ally when the US launched its war on terrorism in bordering Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In his remarks, the US official said the current meeting was designed at strengthening relations between the two countries by developing military-to-military training and exchanges. Feith, who heads a 40-member delegation, told the meeting that “Operation Enduring Freedom” could not have achieved what it did without Islamabad’s support, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.
Feith was quoted as saying there was growing US appreciation of Pakistan’s work in stopping infiltration along its western border and in combating terrorists.
Feith said he hoped the DCG — reactivated after a break of five years — would make substantial headway in the defense cooperation between the two sides.
Issues relating to security environment in the region, threat perceptions, the Kashmir dispute and the global war on terrorism figured in the plenary session.
Feith is scheduled to call on President Pervez Musharraf and other top military leaders. A US Defense Department statement said Tuesday that Feith would also visit Afghanistan, Italy and Romania, and “could possibly” raise the subject of Iraq in the meetings. Pakistan has cracked down on militants linked to Al-Qaeda and has netted hundreds of Al-Qaeda members in raids across the country.
