ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif has reached out to Saudi Arabia for seeking help in countering the threat of extremist violence faced by Pakistan.

Gen Sharif’s two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, which is being keenly followed by many and during which he met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz on Wednesday, focused on cooperation for countering terrorism and extremism.

And as the general completed his trip he had an assurance in his hand from the Saudi monarch that his country would support peace and stability in Pakistan and any threat to the country was unacceptable.

Although there was no formal statement, the tweets from the military spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa made it clear that the agenda was to seek cooperation against extremism. Of the eight tweets on the meeting between King Salman and Gen Sharif four related to fighting terrorism and extremism and appreciating Pakistani operations.

“Both sides re-emphasised the need to join hands to eliminate the menace of terrorism and reinvigorate the mechanism to roll back extremism,” one tweet said. Another tweet that said “COAS appreciated growing counter-terrorism cooperation, intelligence sharing, limiting space of terrorists and extremists in all domains including choking flow of funding” virtually explained the parameters of cooperation the military intends to have from the Saudi leadership.

The military had in the past conveyed to Saudi Arabia its demand for squelching the flow of terror funds from the kingdom, but it is one of the rare occasions that it has publicly mentioned that.

The visit, according to a diplomatic observer, at the minimum serves to implicitly convey to the extremists in Pakistan that any anti-state activity will not have any support even if it is in the garb of religion.

The army chief’s visit was the first since bilateral ties earlier this year came under tremendous strain because of Pakistan’s reluctance to participate in the Yemen war. While the visit shows that the ties are recovering from the downturn, there are indications that both sides are also re-calibrating their expectations.

The Saudis may no more be requiring large-scale troop deployment by Pakistan but could need cooperation for dealing with a bigger challenge — terrorism at home. Saudi Arabia is facing terrorist threat from Daesh and Al Qaeda which have recently mounted attacks inside the kingdom.

The visit followed the first-ever joint counter-terrorism exercises between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan at the newly-established National Counter Terrorism Centre in Pabbi near Jhelum. Codenamed As-Shahab-1 the exercises were participated by Special Forces.

While trying to win the Saudi cooperation, the army chief has also sought to assuage the Saudi leadership’s concerns and reassure them about Pakistan’s support for its security and stability.

“COAS reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to safety, protection of Harmain al Sharifain and territorial integrity of Kingdom,” Gen Bajwa tweeted.

This has been the Pakistani position even during the debate in the country over whether or not to send troops to Saudi Arabia for the Yemen war.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2015

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