ISLAMABAD: Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Saturday Pakistan’s stability was linked to security and prosperity in neighboring Afghanistan and its own battle with Taleban militants.
“Security, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan depend in some part on security, and prosperity and stability in Pakistan,” Miliband said after a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad.
The British diplomat said his two-day visit of Pakistan was part of preparations for an international conference on Afghanistan to be held in London on Jan. 28.
“Pakistan is a vital partner in finding solutions and progress in Afghanistan,” Miliband told a joint press conference with Qureshi.
He said the London conference would consider Afghanistan’s security, governance and development needs, and look into the contributions that the countries in the region could make to the security of Afghanistan.
Miliband said that the international community should give Islamabad more effective support in tackling the Taleban insurgency in the country’s northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops are fighting well-trained and well-equipped Taleban and Al-Qaeda guerrillas who launch attacks across the Afghan border on NATO-led international forces from the northwestern rugged tribal region.
Miliband praised Pakistani sacrifices and termed the achievements against extremism “significant.”
“In terms of commitment of the international community, I think we can always do better and we should always be seeking to do better in respecting Pakistan’s independence and vitality but also recognizing its growing needs,” he said.
Qureshi said the talks with Miliband cordial, adding that Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts and the progress made so far came under discussion.
At least seven policemen were wounded on Saturday when a Taleban militant commander blew himself up in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police said.
Meanwhile, a US missile strike on Saturday killed at least three people in a compound in Ismail Khel village, 40 km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani reiterated Pakistan’s concerns over the drone strikes in talks with a delegation of visiting US senators headed by John McCain. “He reiterated his government’s disappointment over the continuing drone attacks and persisting reluctance of the US to share drone technology with Pakistan to enable it to take on the terror centers in its border areas itself,” said Pakistan’s official APP news agency.
The senators met Gilani on Friday and also held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and army chief Ashfaq Kiyani after visiting Afghanistan, where US and other Western troops face a raging Afghan Taleban insurgency.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, McCain defended the drone strikes, saying they are “one of many tools that we must use to try to defeat a very determined and terrible enemy.”
Pakistan and the United States are long-time allies. But the drone attacks and other issues have caused friction.
— With input from agencies
