US could not have achieved anti-militant success without Pakistan help: Clinton

WASHINGTON: The United States could not have achieved many of the successes in it's drive to get rid of al-Qaeda operatives in the Afghan border region without Pakistan's help, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.

The US Secretary of State reported to Congress that she had a "productive" visit to Islamabad and Kabul where she discussed with the leadership of the twocountries the Obama administration's policy of "fight, talk and build."

"Many of our successes against al-Qaida would not have been possible without our presence in Afghanistan and close cooperation with Pakistan," she said of American success in taking out al-Qaeda militant leaders including Osama bin Laden in the region.

Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary Clinton said coalition and Afghan forces have increased pressure on the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and other insurgents, including with a new operation in eastern Afghanistan launched in recent days.

She said just as Afghans are concerned about militant safe havens across the border in Pakistan, the "Pakistanis also have reason to be concerned about attacks coming at them from across the border in Afghanistan."

In Islamabad last week, she said, the US delegation icnlduing Chairman Joint Chiefs Staff General Martin Dempsey, Director of CIA David Petraeus sought Pakistan's cooperation in squeezing the Haqqani Network from both sides of the border.

" We underscored to our Pakistani counterparts the urgency of the task at hand, and we had detailed and frank conversations about the concrete steps both sides need to take."

"Now, we are not suggesting that Pakistan sacrifice its own security; quite the opposite. We respect the sacrifices that Pakistan has already made. And it's important for Americans to be reminded, over the past decade, more than 5,000 Pakistani soldiers have been lost, and tens of thousands Pakistani citizens have been killed or injured.

That's why we are pursuing a vision of shared security that benefits us all."

On negotiations with militants willing to join the reconsilaiton process, she said "we are taking concrete steps with our partners."

"So in both Kabul and Islamabad, I reaffirmed America's strong support for an inclusive Afghan-led peace process.

And we have been very clear about the necessary outcomes of any negotiation.

Insurgents must renounce violence, abandon al-Qaida, and abide by the laws and constitution of Afghanistan, including its protections for women and minorities.

If insurgents cannot or will not meet those redlines, they will face continued and unrelenting assault. And I want to stress, as I did in Kabul, that the hard-won rights of women and all Afghans cannot be rolled back, and the growth of civil society must be not be quashed."

On development part of the way forward, Clinton said as the transition proceeds and coalition combat forces leave Afghanistan, there need to be realistic hopes for development.

"So we are working to achieve greater agricultural productivity, greater exploitation in a way that benefits the Afghanistan people of natural resources, increasing exports, and strengthening the financial sector.

I really want to underscore the point that Congressmen Howard Berman made, which is really that we want to move from aid to trade.

We cannot do that if we don?t get Reconstruction Opportunity Zone legislation, which will lower tariffs on Pakistani and Afgha products, and the Enterprise Fund, which will not require taxpayer dollars."

Clinton also referred to the idea of pursuing a broader, long-term vision for regional economic integration under the initiative called the New Silk Road.

"It's not just an economic plan. It talks about how we can get these countries that have so many problems with each other to begin cooperating.

And to that end, I'm very pleased by the progress that both India and Pakistan are making on the commercial front and the progress in implementing the transit trade agreement between Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011