ISLAMABAD – In a positive development, US top diplomat makes impressiveremarks over Pakistan’s Role in the Region and against terrorism.
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary forSouth and Central Asia Ambassador Alice G. Wells Wednesday, whilerecounting Pakistan’s support for the Afghan peace process and actionsagainst militant groups, said Islamabad’s commitment to peace in the regionhad grown.
Ambassador Alice Wells link, who isabout to retire on May 22 after a 31-year career, told an online pressbriefing that the US South Asian strategy had called for Pakistan’sdecisive action against the militant groups, particularly those which hadbeen supporting conflicts in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, she said, had taken constructive steps to encourage Taliban toadvance the Afghan peace process, besides taking action against othergroups such as arresting and prosecuting Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeedand beginning to dismantle terror financing structures.
Alice Wells link, a career diplomatwho has served as acting assistant secretary of state for South and CentralAsia for most of the Trump administration’s tenure, said during last threeyears, Pakistan’s relations with the United States had improvedparticularly in trade.
Alice Wells link had assumed herduties as Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia on June 26,2017. She previously served as the US Ambassador to Jordan; a senioradviser in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau in the Department of State, asSpecial Assistant to the President for Russia and Central Asia in the WhiteHouse (2012-2013); Executive Assistant to Secretary of State Clinton(2011-2012); and Executive Assistant to Under Secretary for PoliticalAffairs William J. Burns (2009-2011).
Alice Wells link said after assumingthe office, President Trump had announced that the US needed to give aserious look to the Afghan policy in terms of its economic impact as wellas the security risk to its security forces.
She said after over a year of talks, the US and Taliban signed a peace dealin which Taliban committed to bring down the violence in the country. TheUS was upholding its commitment and closely looking at the situation, shesaid and made it clear that the increased volume of violence in Afghanistanwas unacceptable.
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The ambassador, who would now be replaced by another veteran diplomat TomVajda, said the US welcomed the formation of an inclusive government inAfghanistan by President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah. The US waslooking for rapid implementation of the mutual agreement and immediatesteps to reach the much awaited intra-Afghan negotiations.
To a question, the ambassador said it was deeply in Pakistan’s interest toadvance the Afghan peace process. As per their commitment, the US had seensolid cooperation from Pakistan’s civil and military leadership towards theAfghan peace talks.
She believed that the peace process would meet success during next fiveyears. However, regarding the terror activities like the recent ones by theISIS, the ambassador said both the Afghan government and Taliban shouldcommonly fight such groups.
Commenting on the US support in the worldwide public health sector, shesaid the US had spent around 6$.5 billion dollar in assistance anddonations. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the US had provided $98 millionto the South Asian and Central Asian countries to help them fight thepandemic.
The ambassador gave an overview of the US ties and cooperation with theSouth Asian and Central Asian states, including Pakistan, India, Nepal, SriLanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others during thelast three years, and reiterated that the US desired to establish mutuallybeneficial relations with all the states.
