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Chief of Army Staff | General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

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The COAS has cancelled his visit to UK in light of the recent events unfolding. Any more news on this?
 
Rawalpindi - September 27, 2011:
His Excellency, Meng Jianzhu, State Councilor of China, called on the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and senior army officers at GHQ yesterday evening.

The visiting dignitary was accompanied by a delegation of high ranking Chinese officials. The two sides discussed bilateral issues including matters of mutual interest.

COAS thanked the visitor for China’s unwavering support to Pakistan and appreciated the time tested friendship between the people of the two Countries.

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His Excellency, Meng Jianzhu, State Councilor of China called on the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters on Tuesday

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Chinese Delegation headed by His Excellency, Meng Jianzhu, State Councilor of China meeting with COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters on Tuesday (27-09-2011) –
 
The Gloves Come Off

Washington's talking tough to Pakistan about the Haqqanis. But does it have enough leverage to walk the walk?

BY DANIEL S. MARKEY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2011



On Sept. 22, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified before Congress that the Haqqani network, the group that launched the Sept. 13 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, is a "veritable arm" of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. Public testimony has been matched by tough talk in private, including in meetings between CIA chief David Petraeus and ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha and between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterpart, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

Washington is launching a full-court press to show that it will no longer sit idly by while terrorist groups, abetted by the ISI, kill Americans and their allies in Afghanistan. Never before have we seen this sort of high-level, across-the-board pressure from the U.S. government. And never before have U.S. demands on Islamabad to get tough on the Haqqani network been coupled with what -- at least implicitly -- sound like threats of significantly expanded U.S. unilateral action inside Pakistan.

At surface level, these statements require no explanation at all. If Washington has ample evidence of ISI complicity, then how can it possibly look the other way, much less continue to provide assistance to the Pakistani government and military?

But the reality is that evidence of ISI support for Haqqani operations in Afghanistan is hardly new. Back in July 2008, Washington made similar claims of Pakistani complicity when the Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed. Since then, however, U.S. military and civilian aid to Pakistan has increased, in part reflecting American hopes that carrots, rather than sticks, will be more likely to shift Pakistan's behavior.

In the past, Washington always tempered its criticism of Pakistan for fear that pushing too hard might break the relationship in ways that would cause more harm than good. U.S. officials have always known that the major supply lines for American forces in Afghanistan run through Pakistan's ports, highways, and airspace. U.S. officials have always valued aspects of counterterrorism cooperation that take place in the shadows, away from the glare of the press and the scrutiny of the public. And they have always hoped that by engaging Pakistan's military and civilian leaders, they would gradually work toward a more effective partnership that could satisfy both American and Pakistani security requirements.

What has changed? There are probably two reasons behind Washington's newly aggressive posture.

First, U.S. military leverage in the region is a diminishing asset. Washington can make threats now that will be less credible in a year or two. NATO force levels in Afghanistan are at their zenith, so if there is ever going to be a time for credible threats to expand the conflict into the Pakistani tribal areas where the Haqqani network is headquartered, it is now.

Second, Washington believes it has relatively little to lose in its bilateral relationship with Pakistan. To be sure, much is still at stake. Supply routes to Afghanistan and bilateral ties with a nuclear-armed state are nothing to sneeze at. But the calculation has to do with relative losses, not absolute ones. As U.S. officials peer into the future, they see little reason to expect that relations with Islamabad are likely to improve. Indeed, there's precious little evidence to suggest that the trajectory of the U.S.-Pakistan relations will go anywhere but downhill. If there is already a realistic chance that this relationship will rupture and that the benefits of bilateral cooperation will eventually be lost, why not press Pakistan now while Washington still enjoys some positive leverage and before relations hit rock bottom?

Of course, for Washington's coercion to work, it has to be credible. Tough talk alone is not about to sway the generals in Islamabad. But today's threats are already more serious than those of the past because they have been made in public -- and because Congress has already signaled that it will make assistance to Pakistan conditional upon action against the Haqqani network. These steps will be hard to undo.

But Pakistan also has cards to play in its escalating bout with the United States. First, Islamabad can cry foul. It is already doing so. Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in a statement called Mullen's remarks "very unfortunate and not based on facts." And Foreign Minister Khar has cautioned, "You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan; you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people." But these protests have less weight than they once did -- Barack Obama's administration already knows the risks it is running.

Next, Pakistan is likely to remind Washington that it controls the ground supply routes into Afghanistan, perhaps by halting or delaying entry or by allowing shipments to be destroyed. Both of these steps have been taken in the past. And it could get far, far worse than that. Pakistan could close its airspace to American overflights, end remaining military and intelligence cooperation, deny visas to U.S. officials, enable militant attacks on U.S. Embassy employees and facilities, and shoot down the U.S. drones that still fly over Pakistan's tribal areas.

Would Washington be willing and able to respond to each of these steps? Perhaps; but it won't be easy. The United States could take the costly step of shifting ground supply routes to Afghanistan to run through Russia and Central Asia, along the so-called Northern Distribution Network; negotiate new agreements for airborne shipments and personnel; substitute drones with less-discriminating, higher-flying bombers that can evade Pakistani air defenses; and launch commando raids into Pakistan supported by a surged conventional presence on Afghanistan's eastern border.

These are ugly options. They could get even uglier. But this is now the reality, with Washington having taken such an aggressive, public stance against its erstwhile ally. Quiet, indirect, but still forceful methods were more likely to engineer a shift in Pakistan's policies at a lower risk. Many of those options, however, have been exhausted.

Faced with such terribly high stakes, the question now is which side will blink first, and when.
 
Who will take the Pakistan baton?


By Philip Ewing Monday, October 3rd, 2011


In addition to all the photos and office bric-a-brac that Adm. Mike Mullen packed away with him after leaving as Joint Chiefs chairman, he took something else that he believed was of great value: His relationship with the chief of Pakistan’s military.

In trip after trip and meeting after meeting, Mullen built close ties with his counterpart, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, which, as he told Congress and reporters, went a long way toward keeping things together even as the rocky relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan strained almost to the breaking point.

It may not have looked like it from the outside, but it’s possible that Mullen and Kayani’s relationship may have been key to the smooth operation of the things we don’t see in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, including drone strikes, intelligence sharing and special operations. (Then again, it’s also possible their vaunted “relationship” was itself a smokescreen to try to make it appear that the two sides were getting on better than they actually were.)


So no matter what it was worth, who’s taking up the mantle now? Well, no one in particular. Still, a top DoD spokesman said the military relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan has been improving since May’s raid against Osama bin Laden, and a number of other top officials also are making an effort to bridge the gap Mullen left. Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby said Monday that CentCom commander Gen. James Mattis visited Kayani only a few days after Mullen’s now-infamous testimony.

“I’m sure he is going to continue to engage, as is [ISAF commander] Gen. [John] Allen.” So will there be a uniformed leader who will be the main point of contact with Pakistan? “I’m sure that will occur across the chain of command,” Kirby said, “But I don’t know about a single point of contact. We’re going to approach this across the board.”

There is every reason to expect that Mullen’s successor, Gen. Martin Dempsey, will log just as many air miles on the way to Pakistan as Mullen did, partly to follow his example and partly of pure necessity: As the top brass keeps saying, the U.S. simply has no option but to keep up close military ties with Pakistan, even though, as Mullen made clear, the Pakistanis are effectively waging a proxy war against America at the same time they function as a key ally.

But that will take time — Monday is Dempsey’s first day on the job, and he may need a little time to get his bearings in Washington before he makes a trip to Islamabad or anywhere else.
 
Pakistan Army fully prepare to counter border incursion. General Kayani

Islamabad Oct 06 (APP): Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pevez Kayani has said that Pakistan Army is fully prepared to counter any border-incursion. He said that military operation is followed by the political solutions. He said like in Swat, Pakistan has done its job and now political process is underway.

General Kayani said this while responding to a media query in context of attacks on Pakistani security posts from Afghanistan. General Kayani said this after witnessing Pak-Saudi joint military exercise in field operation area today.
 
General Kayani along with Saudi Commander witnessed Pak-Saudi Joint Military exercises ‘Al-Samsaam’

ISLAMABAD Oct 06 (APP): Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Perez Kayani and Saudi Commander Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) Prince Lt. General (Staff) Khalid Bin Bander Bin Adbul Aziz Al-Saud today witnessed field operational area and witnessed Pak-Saudi Joint Military Exercises ‘Al Samsaam-IV.

General Kayani while addressing the joint forces on the occasion congratulated the participating troops on successful endeavors during the course of exercise. He termed the continued exercise as the excellent depiction bilateral military cooperation between the two brotherly countries. General Kayani said that troops from both sides have availed the best opportunity to learn from each other.

Army Chief went on saying that relations of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are not only friendly, but brotherly as both nations have long history of shared interest. He continued adding that both the countries have also strategic partnership which he said would further improve in future. General Kayani said that both the countries are deepening military and strategic partnership and more training and exercises would be set in future.

Saudi Commander, Prince Lt. General (Staff) Khalid Bin Bander Bin Adbul Aziz Al-Saud during his address lauded proficiency and professionalism exhibited by the joint troops and said that exercise is the symbol of deep friendship and brotherhood between the two brotherly countries. “this exercise reflects the basis and history of relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, this shows how much we are gaining from each other” said General Khalid.

It is pertinent to mention that Al-Samsaam Exercise IV is a part of continued joint exercises. Since its inception, the exercise has taken place three times in Saudi Arabia Al-Samsaam I in 2004, Al-Samsaam II 2006 and Al-Samsaam III 2008, whereas Al-Samsaam IV is underway that will continued up till mid of this month.

Today’s demonstration was related to anti-terrorism endeavor in which forces shown the way to counter the terror attack and taking control of the captured area. Along with land forces, fighter jets from Pakistan Air Force, Cobra Helicopters of Army Aviation also took part in the exercise.
 
Rawalpindi: Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiani has said army has full potential to give befitting reply to any aggression to safeguard defence of the country.

He said this while presiding over 144th Corps Commanders Conference here Friday at General Headquarters (GHQ). The conference reviewed security situation of the country, war against terrorism, prevention of growing infiltration from Afghan side , situation arising out of allegations levelled by US, operational preparedness of army and other preparations.

Military sources said that the participants of conference were apprised of the targeted operations conducted by rangers against the militants in Karachi. The participants were also taken into confidence about diverse measures taken to prevent increasing infiltration inside Pakistan territory from across Afghan borders.

Sources said that the Army Chief, while addressing the conference, said army would not hesitate from rendering any sacrifice to ensure defence and national security. National integrity would be ensured at every cost, he held.

He reiterated that Pakistan had extended sacrifices in war against terrorism more than any country while army was carrying out operation against the terrorists under the directives of government.

Participants of conference voiced satisfaction over the steps taken for ensuring national security.

As per press release conference was part of routine meetings which are held every month and the professional matters of army and upgradation of their professional skill were discussed.


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there is a corp commander conference every other week!

Can anybody tell me what is the routine schedule of these conferences? twice a year?

---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ----------


The uniform is the new one, the modified one, looks nice.
 
there is a corp commander conference every other week!

Can anybody tell me what is the routine schedule of these conferences? twice a year?

Change of govt.
Final touches are being applied to the plan
 
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman has arrived today here in Islamabad and met Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani soon after

Grossman and General Kayani discussed aspects of mutual interests including defence ties, war against terrorism and peace process in Afghanistan.

Marc Grossman is also expected to hold meetings with President Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in the federal capital.

The meetings will focus on the recently troubled Pak-US relationship.
 
No PR241/2011-ISPR
Rawalpindi - October 13, 2011:

General Jhon Allen, Commander International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters today.

The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed measures aimed at improving cross border coordination and procedures between Pakistan Army and ISAF / Afghan Army at Pak-Afghan border.


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General Jhon Allen, Commander International Security Assistance Force called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters today.(13-10-2011)- Photo ISPR
 
No PR240/2011-ISPR
Rawalpindi - October 13, 2011:

Mr Marc Grossman, United States Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at General Headquarters today.

The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed measures for Pak - US cooperative framework for peace in the region.
 
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani warns America that it will have to think 10 times before it takes unilateral action in Pakistani area of North Waziristan. [Source: AFP]
 
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