US assures to continue help Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The United States on Tuesday once again expressed the resolve that it would not repeat the mistake of the past of leaving Pakistan alone and would continue with its long term engagement and investment in the region.

This was stated by Special Representative of the United States Marc Grossman at a joint news conference with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Javid Ludin following the fourth meeting of the Trilateral Core Group here tonight.

The US envoy said ups and downs in bilateral relations are a normal matter in diplomacy and added that Pakistan and the United States have shared interests to act jointly. He said they share interest in countering terrorism and supporting the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.

He said apart from the Afghan reconciliation process, the Group also discussed the support that the regional countries can offer in this regard and regional economic vision.

Marc Grossman said they would meet again in Turkey in Nov this year to talk about the regional aspect of the challenge confronting Afghanistan.

Another meeting would be held in Dec in Bonn where the participants would discuss the overall peace and reconciliation process, the transition and the regional economic vision.

To a question he said American diplomats have been travelling freely in Pakistan. He, however, said Pakistan has some regulations and travel requirements and the US were trying to meet those requirements.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said Pakistan and the United States have an on-going constructive engagement and the two countries are addressing all issues in a constructive and friendly manner.

He said the Core Group provides a mechanism to consult, cooperate and coordinate on matters relating to peace, security, stability, prosperity and development, adding, this is the process that manifests Pakistan and US support for Afghan led peace and reconciliation process.

He said Pakistan fully supports the all inclusive broad-based process of reconciliation that is underway in Afghanistan.

He said, "The trilateral engagements have been very productive and we feel confident that our common interests based on broad degree of convergence of interests would help build peace, stability and prosperity."

To a question whether Pakistan raised the issue of cross border incursions from Afghan side, the Foreign Secretary said the two countries have a great degree of clarity on sources and nature of the problem and they are determined to deal with it accordingly.

He said, "We don't want to make it an acrimonious issue between the two countries."

Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Javid Ludin said the reconciliation process in Afghanistan depends on the cooperation that Pakistan can extend in engaging the Taliban leadership with a view to bringing them over to the peace process.

He said Afghanistan is identifying lower and mid-level Taliban leaders who can contribute to peace and reconciliation. "We want Pakistan to assist in bringing top leadership of Taliban into the process," he said.

The Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister said he has come to Islamabad with a message of urgency for cooperation in making the peace process a success.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011