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July, 2012
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Pentagon says relationship with Pakistan settling into normal phase |
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WASHINGTON, July 11 (APP): The Pentagon has said the U.S. relationship with Pakistan is settling into a more normal phase, following last week’s revival of Pakistani supply routes into Afghanistan. “We’re grateful that those supply routes are now available to us and to our ISAF partners, and we believe that the relationship with Pakistan is settling into a more normal phase,” Press Secretary George Little said. Islamabad closed its overland supply lines in the aftermath of November 26, 2011 American airstrikes on Salala border posts, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized over the
Pakistani losses, a development which led to Islamabad reopening its
border-crossings into Afghanistan.
The U.S., he said, cooperated with the Pakistanis on a wide range of issues.
About the Haqqani militants - who allegedly operate out of their
sanctuary on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border - Little said,
“this is an issue that we routinely discuss with the Pakistanis”.
“Our views about the Haqqani network are well-known to our Pakistani partners, and we’ll continue to share those concerns.”
The Haqqanis need to be dealt with from both sides of Pakistan-Afghanistan border, he said.
Meanwhile, a senior US defense official has said moving the mountain of
U.S. military gear out of Afghanistan after more than a decade of war
will cost billions of dollars and prove far more difficult than last
year’s withdrawal from Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s point man for
overseeing the draw down in Afghanistan, told USA Today in an interview
“it’s a very austere logistics environment to transport anything,”
Carter said.
According to a report in the newspaper, the pace of withdrawal is picking up: about 20,000 U.S. troops and their gear will be coming home by
October. There are about 88,000 American forces there now. All U.S.
combat forces are to leave by 2014, the report added.
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Presidential address to the joint sitting of parliament |
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