ISLAMABAD, May 1: The Pakistan-US Defence Consultative Group (DCG) is meeting in Washington this week to review and bolster bilateral military cooperation, particularly in the war against terrorism.

The DCG is the primary forum for dialogue on security issues and coordinating policies regarding the war on terrorism.

The five-day meeting will be co-chaired by Pakistan’s Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Tariq Wasim Ghazi and US Under-Secretary of State of Defence Eric Edleman.

The wide-ranging talks at the Pentagon would cover matters of security support arrangements, procurement of military equipment and military training, it is learnt.

President George W. Bush during his visit here in March had held out the assurance that the US government would assist Pakistan in improving its capabilities to operate against Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas. He indicated that Washington would address Islamabad’s legitimate military requirements which would be discussed at the DCG meeting.

The Major Non-Nato Ally status granted to Pakistan by the US in 2004 is supposed to facilitate delivery of US weapons systems to Pakistan.

Since 2001, around 300 Pakistani military officers have been trained in the US every year. Currently, a four-member Pakistani military team is based at the Centcom headquarters in Tampa Florida for coordination purposes. The team headed by a brigadier has officers of lt-colonel and major ranks. All coalition partners in the US-led war on terror have their representatives stationed at Centcom after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the American landmarks.

At the 16th meeting of the DCG in February 2005 a new sub-group ‘operations consultation committee’ was established to share assessment on specific regional and global threats and exchange military information on operational issues.