ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Office has said that Pakistan has fought the war against terrorism largely from its own resources which has cost over $120 billion in 15 years, and asked the United States to demonstrate respect and trust for continued cooperation to achieve enduring peace.
“We are determined to continue to do all it takes to secure the lives of our citizens and broader stability in the region,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said in a statement issued in Islamabad.
The Spokesperson said that we are engaged with the US administration on the issue of security cooperation and await further details. He said that impact of US’s decision on pursuit of common objectives is also likely to emerge more clearly in due course of time.
“We believe that Pakistan-US cooperation in fighting terrorism has directly served US national security interests as well as the larger interests of international community,” he said.
It has helped decimate Al-Qaeda and fight other groups who took advantage of ungoverned spaces, a long porous border and posed a common threat to peace, he added.
Dr Faisal said that through a series of major Counter-Terrorism Operations, Pakistan cleared all these areas resulting in elimination of organized terrorist presence leading to significant improvement in security in Pakistan.
“Our efforts towards peace are awaiting reciprocal actions from the Afghan side in terms of clearance of vast stretches of ungoverned spaces on the Afghan side, bilateral border management, repatriation of Afghan Refugees, controlling poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and initiating Afghan-led and owned political reconciliation in Afghanistan,” he said.
The Foreign Office Spokesperson further said that working towards enduring peace requires mutual respect and trust along with patience and persistence.
Dr Faisal said that emergence of new and more deadly groups such as Daesh in Afghanistan call for enhancing international cooperation. He said that arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements and shifting goalposts are counterproductive in addressing common threats.
