ISLAMABAD, 9 May 2007 — NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Pervez Musharraf agreed yesterday to strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to contain the Taleban insurgency.
Scheffer told a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri that his two-hour meeting with Musharraf focused on measures to secure the border.
“This was an important element in my discussions with President Musharraf: that ... every effort, every investment should be made to see that the porous border is adequately under surveillance and adequately under control,” Scheffer said.
Pakistan has increased the number of its troops deployed along the Afghan border to 90,000 to make it more difficult for Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants to cross, Kasuri said. Pakistan also increased the number of military posts along the frontier from 100 to 110, he said.
“This is the level of Pakistan’s commitment,” Kasuri said at the news conference. “We expect a matching response from Afghanistan, as each side must play its due role to combat the menace of terrorism.”
Kasuri provided no details of when the troop increase occurred or where exactly the troops were deployed.
The NATO chief underlined that military action alone was not the solution to Afghanistan’s insurgency problems, despite the presence of 37,000 NATO forces.
“It is my strong opinion that the final answer in Afghanistan will not be a military one and cannot be a military one. The final answer in Afghanistan is called reconstruction, development and nation-building.”
Kasuri said Pakistan had done a great deal to enhance stability in the border region. “Pakistan has deployed twice as many troops and suffered thrice as many casualties as the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces in Afghanistan,” Kasuri said.
Scheffer was accompanied by the 26-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military commander Gen. John Craddock. The two also met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Musharraf told the NATO chief that the Taleban are primarily an Afghan problem and that Afghan and international coalition forces need to do more at military, political and administrative levels to defeat the insurgency, the source said.
The Pakistani leader also reiterated that a “stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan.”
Indian War Games a Routine Matter
Pakistan Army has termed the war games to be conducted by the Indian Army near Pakistan’s eastern border as a routine exercise.
Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said yesterday it was a routine matter and Pakistan had conducted similar military exercises in the past.
“We inform each other about our military exercises and at the same time we have knowledge of each other’s winter and summer exercises,” Arshad told Arab News. The four-day exercises beginning Friday will involve 1,5000 troops with armor and heavy artillery.
