Washington to make CSF payments

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WASHINGTON, Feb 17: A team of senior defence officials is coming to Washington this week for talks which will focus on replenishing US-supplied weapons for Pakistan, official sources told Dawn.

The sources said the United States had agreed to continue reimbursing Pakistan from the Coalition Support Fund despite strong objections from some lawmakers.

Director General Joint Staff Lt Gen Mohammad Asif will represent Pakistan at the Defence Resources Conference, which begins in Washington on Tuesday.

The conference will review Pakistan’s defence requirements, both in the fight against terrorists and for self-defence, and make recommendations.

The sources, however, rejected media reports that the United States and Pakistan had reached an understanding to allow Islamabad to receive some of the weapons the Americans would be leaving behind while withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2014.

“Several countries are interested in those weapons and no decision has yet been made on this particular subject,” said a source familiar with the situation.

The sources said that the United States and Pakistan were also negotiating a new arrangement for reimbursing Islamabad from the Coalition Support Fund.

In the present arrangement, Pakistan submits its claim for every dollar it spends in the fight against terrorists and the United States has to check and approve each item before the funds can be released.

Under the proposed arrangement, the reimbursements will be divided into several major sectors and Pakistan will be required to file claims for each sector.

The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency, while justifying the reimbursements, noted that “Pakistan conducts major border operations along the Afghan border and has significantly impacted terrorist networks in the region, achieving successes that would be difficult for US Armed Forces to attain”.

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