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We’ve made it a strategic priority to strengthen our partnership with the Pakistani people, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. –Photo by AP
WASHINGTON: The United States has made a “strategic priority” to strengthen its partnership with Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.
In a testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, she also noted that US efforts in Pakistan were vital for America’s success in Afghanistan.
Thursday’s hearing helps set the stage for the upcoming debate this spring over the White House requests for $33 billion in new war funding coupled with $4.5 billion in foreign assistance, chiefly for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“In Pakistan, our efforts are vital to success in Afghanistan, but also to our own American security,” she said. “We’ve made it a strategic priority to strengthen our partnership with the Pakistani people.”
She also warned the American people not expect a quick victory against the extremists in the Pak-Afghan region.
“I’m under no illusion that success in this arena will come quickly or easily,” she said, noting that only a year ago the extremists were less than 100 miles from Islamabad and they met little resistance in launching attacks on American troops from border areas.
Noting that the situation had changed drastically since last year, she credited the Pakistani military for this success. “Since then, the Pakistani government has launched important offences in Swat, South Waziristan and throughout the country,” she said.
Secretary Clinton said the supplement, which went beyond the White House’s original funding request, would help the United States achieve its goals in all of what she called “frontline states”.
“Our request addresses urgent demands that will advance our efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan and ensure a smooth transition to a civilian-led effort in Iraq,” she said.
“Success requires a fully integrated civilian and military effort, one in which security gains are followed immediately by economic and political gain,” she said. Across the border in Pakistan, where the United States pressed the government itself to be more aggressive against Taliban forces, the wreckage left has “created new humanitarian needs that, if not addressed immediately,” Clinton said, “could make these areas ripe for extremism”.
Appearing before the same panel, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates expressed “guarded optimism” about US progress in Afghanistan but predicted “many tough and long days ahead” as evidenced by the sheer number of ticklish questions he faced on everything from police training contracts to the Afghan opium crop and alleged human rights abuses by Pakistan military units.
