No decisive and sustained change in behaviour of Pak after aid freeze: US official
March 06, 2018 08:25
The US has not seen a "decisive and sustained" change in the behaviour of Pakistan, even after the Trump administration announced a $2 billion security assistance freeze to Islamabad nearly two months ago, a senior American official said today.
"We've not seen decisive and sustained changes yet in Pakistan's behaviour, but certainly we are continuing to engage with Pakistan over areas where we think they can play a helpful role in changing the calculus of the Taliban," said Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Alice South and Central Asia.
Briefing reporters on the just concluded Kabul conference in Afghanistan, Wells said Pakistan has a very important role to play in the Afghan peace process.
"We believe that Pakistan can certainly help to facilitate talks and to take actions that will put pressure on and encourage the Taliban to move forward towards a politically negotiated settlement," Wells said in response to a question.
"And our engagement with Pakistan is on how we can work together, on how we can address Pakistan's legitimate concerns and Afghanistan's stability through a negotiated process as well," she said.
"Pakistani officials have underscored, they see a variety of issues, whether it's border management or refugees or terrorism that emanates from ungoverned space in Afghanistan, as important issues, and we would agree that all of these need to be resolved during the course of a reconciliation process," Wells said.
Pakistan has concerns over border management; over the Tehrik-i-Taliban; Pakistan's presence in ungoverned space in Afghanistan; refugee concerns, she said.
-- PTI
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