WASHINGTON:Pakistan will continue to provide the United States with air andground logistics for its troops in Afghanistan in spite of the aid cut, asIslamabad believes it helps the war against terrorism, Prime MinisterShahid Kaqan Abbasi said in an interview to the Washington Post.

According to the excerpts of the interview conducted on the sidelines ofthe World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and made available to APP,the Prime Minister told the WP that Pakistan had extended support to the USin the fight against terrorism and that it would not be affected byPresident Trump’s statement and the aid-cut.

“No. That will continue. Because we believe that helps in the war againstterror,” he said referring to the assistance that Pakistani provides to theUS to supply logistics to its forces in Afghanistan. He was replying to aquestion if that assistance would be affected by President Trump’sstatements. “It (assistance) helps brings stability to Pakistan, so wesupport that effort.”

Prime Minister Abbasi, to a question said, relations between Pakistan andthe United kept changing with the presidents and the Congress. “This hasbeen a relationship that has not been one of trust or stability,” he said.

But, while Pakistan provided unconditional support to the US after theSeptember 11 terrorist attacks, the American quid pro is poor, the PM said,adding that even after the US aid cut, Pakistan continues to provide the USwith air and ground logistics for Afghanistan without any contract orpayment.

There has been over 1.1 million US overflights within Pakistani airspaceused to fight terrorism in Afghanistan and millions of tons of equipmentand cargo is transported to American troops using Pakistani land routes.

When asked how he would respond to President Trump’s tweet, in which heaccused Pakistan for not being fully cooperative, the Prime Minister saidthe ground realities did not support his assertion.

“We are committed to fighting the war against terror. There are no two waysabout it. We have assisted the U.S. forces and will continue to assistthem,” the Prime Minister said, adding that Pakistan has always acted uponactual US intelligence against terrorists.

“We have destroyed the sanctuaries. There has not been a single instancewhere if actual intelligence has been provided, it has not been actedupon,” he added.

To the contrary, the Prime Minister pointed out that in the last yearalone, 29 suicide bombers crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan andattacked government installations and people, including an attack on theconvoy of the deputy chair of the Senate that killed 22 people.

Replying to a question, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan and the UShave had very strong relationship, but it had gone downhill in the past 15years. He said that Pakistan had received minimal US aid in the last 15years or so.

But, he calcified that there was no economic aid and the securityassistance that US provided to Pakistan was a coalition support fund whichit reimbursed Pakistan for the expenses that were made in support of USforces in Afghanistan.

“Security assistance was minimal. There were some military sales – webought some F-16 fighters, which we did not receive. All that has done isdegrade our ability to fight the terrorists,” said the Prime Ministeralluding to the cut in security assistance.

Emphasizing Pakistan’s firm commitment to root out menace of terrorism andextremism from its soil, Prime Minister Abbasi said that the country wasfighting the largest war on terror in the world.

“We have 200,000 troops fighting a war against terror today on the westernborder. We have lost 6,500 troops. We have defeated the same enemy the restof the world failed to defeat in Afghanistan, on the same terrain, with ourown resources.”

Prime Minister Abbasi said that there were no sanctuaries in Pakistan andthat the country was ready to take action if someone provided a location.

About the situation in neighboring Afghanistan, the Prime Minister saidthat most of the areas along the border with Pakistan are controlled by theTaliban and the Afghan government had a minimal control there.

He said that Pakistan shares 2,000+plus kilometer border with Afghanistanand of that, there is not a single Afghan soldier or a post on the stretchof 700 kilometers. “Drug trafficking is at the highest level we have seenin 50 years,” he said, adding that Pakistan has now started fencing theborder on its side and spending billions of dollar on that.