LONDON: US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) Dan Feldman said that US civil and military leadership meetings with Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif were “very, very constructive.”
Speaking to a private news channel ahead of the international conference on Afghanistan, Dan Feldman said that Pakistan’s COAS engaged with the US leadership on a broad range of issues as part of a broad dialogue, including “Afghanistan, counterterrorism, bilateral issues between Pakistan and the US and Pakistan security and military dialogue.”
Feldman said that it was the first visit since 2010 of a Pakistani army chief to the US. He added that the US administration availed every opportunity to engage with Pakistan as seen recently during Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the US, his meetings with Joe Biden and others and his meeting with Senator John Kerry in London.
“This shows how seriously we take this relationship and how we want to make sure that it becomes stronger and more constructive.”
Feldman added that the US believed that relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan had improved a lot as both countries realised that they had to work together and that’s why many of these visits have taken place in the last few months.
“There is so much potential in friendship between the two countries and in these meetings, the range of areas of discussion were economic and trade linkages on the border, security and military issues and reconciliation. This is a real moment of opportunity with historic transition to democracy on both sides to come together and move forward.”
When asked about Pakistani fears that Indian spy agencies had used Afghanistan’s soil to create and sponsor terrorism inside Pakistan, Dan Feldman said that “there cannot be safe havens on either side of the border.”
He further said that Pakistan hadn’t stated anything significant in this regard recently and that Afghanistan was in such a state that it would receive help from international partners, as economy and peace were linked.
“That’s why I think that Pakistan and Afghan future is important and therein lies the future of connectivity between the two countries and ideally at some point that connects all Central Asia with South Asia through economic linkages.”
When questioned about the unsuccessful attempt of coalition forces in establishing the writ of the government across Afghanistan in view of the fact that Taliban maintained control in many areas outside Kabul, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan responded, “There have been remarkable strides in Afghanistan in the course of last dozen years and very significantly Afghan security forces are standing up again and helping to safeguard the country.”
When asked if Afghanistan and Pakistan were opening up to each other because Hamid Karzai was not in power anymore, the US special representative refused to answer the question directly but stressed that the current situation offered a “golden moment of opportunity.
“This is a real window of opportunity. There is a new government in Afghanistan and Nawaz Sharif government was voted in only last year.
“The fact is that two democratically-elected governments are engaging with each other in a productive way which is very important.”
