ISLAMABAD/KABUL, 12 January 2007 — Gen. David Richards, senior commander of NATO’s 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, said here yesterday that Pakistan’s effective measures against terrorism had helped NATO troops fight militants and terrorists in Afghanistan.

Islamabad’s heavy troop deployment along the porous border had helped reduce militant activities in Afghanistan, he said.

“The reduction of incidents in Afghanistan since the autumn, however, has much to do with activities on this (Pakistan) side of the border,” he added.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with top Pakistan and Afghan Army commanders in Islamabad he said, “We are confident that this conflict is winnable.

“There are problems ... but we are confident that we can deal with them,” he said, referring to the cross-border insurgency by the Taleban.

He compared the porous Pakistan-Afghan border with the problems British troops had faced in Northern Ireland with IRA before the Good Friday peace accord of 1998. “That is a 135-kilometer border, and not even in that campaign we managed to fully control it,” Richards told reporters after the tripartite meeting meant to coordinate military activities in the region. The Pakistan-Afghan border is “2,500 kilometers long, with mountains that are very hard to control,” he said.

Appreciating Islamabad’s efforts, he said the measures were paying off.

Richards said violence in Afghanistan had also been on the decline due to the combined efforts of Afghan and international troops, operating in Afghanistan since late 2001.

“Today in Afghanistan the number of incidents have declined dramatically from the highs of the last summer.

“The reduction is to a degree the result of Pakistan Army activity and we are the beneficiaries of that,” he said. Gen. Richards said that the Tripartite Military Commission meeting discussed the security situation and ways to stem the activities of militants shuttling the Pak-Afghan border.

Responding to a question about Pakistan’s plan to fence and mine the border he said, “That’s a political decision and we did not discuss it.”

Gen. Richards agreed that Afghan drug dealers were contributing to the worsening of the situation as they financed militants to help them smuggle drugs. He said drug trade in Afghanistan is closely linked to the war-ravaged country’s economy.

During the tripartite meeting Pakistan Army was represented by Vice Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat while Commander of Afghanistan’s National Army Gen. Bismillah Khan represented his country. The next meeting of the commission will be held in Rawalpindi in March.

Meanwhile, the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate in a statement said the meeting agreed to establish a joint intelligence operations organization to be based in Kabul. Pakistan’s military intelligence personnel will be sent to Kabul to represent their country in the new organization. The establishment of the body aims at ensuring speedy sharing of information and better coordination to fight Taleban and check cross-border attacks by militants.

The ISPR statement said a new mechanism would be put in place to remove misunderstandings between Pakistani and Afghan officials.

For the first time Pakistan’s intelligence personnel will be deployed in Kabul after the establishment of the new organization.

Meanwhile, a senior US official said in Kabul yesterday Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism is genuine and the country remains an important ally of the United States.

Pakistan “is committed to this not just because we are all concerned about terrorism, but because of the commitment that they have ... of orienting Pakistan in a different direction,” Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told reporters in the Afghan capital.

Pakistan wants to create a “modern society that is free from the kind of extremism, terrorism that has beset Pakistan and some of its neighbors in the past,” he said.

Boucher did not say whether the United States supports Pakistan’s plan to mine and fence parts of its border with Afghanistan. That plan was also criticized by the United Nations.

“The issue to us is the control of the border and control of the border areas,” Boucher said. “Pakistan does not want to see Al-Qaeda, Taleban operating in Pakistan and they are taking a series of steps ... to try to control those areas better and we are supporting that,” he said.

The 32,000 strong NATO-led force needs additional troops that its commander said were required to fulfill its mission, Boucher said.

“It is very important to us that we provide the forces that are necessary to help stabilize Afghanistan and provide security for the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

US forces, NATO and the Afghan Army are already acting to disrupt “the ability of the Taleban to operate, to decrease their ability to launch their traditional spring offensive,” Boucher said.