Thursday June 25, 2009
WASHINGTON: The United States will ask major industrialized nations to expand their economic support for Pakistan at this week's meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Italy to help the South Asian anti-terror ally deal with the ‘enormous humanitarian challenge’ to provide relief to millions of displaced people.
Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns will represent the US at a series of meetings on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Italian city of Trieste from June 25-26 in advance of the G8 summit in July.
"We'll put a particular focus at this meeting on what they can do to help Pakistan, in particular, to bolster Pakistan's civilian government and its efforts to combat Taliban and extremists," a senior State Department told journalists at a briefing about US participation in the meeting, also to be attended by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
"The EU (European Union) had a conference on Pakistan I believe it'll be its first one in history - last week and came up with a significant amount of money, I think $100 million, getting us towards the goal of $500 million for Pakistan. That's an important contribution of a nonmilitary sort, the likes of which we'll be looking to build on at the G-8 meeting," the official added.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers will also attend the meetings.
The official noted that the Italians are convinced that this is a global problem and can only be dealt with globally. The official expected an open dialogue on the challenges that in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the meetings.
"If we're all working together, and I think there's a significant amount of common interest in Pakistan in bolstering the Pakistani government and in providing more resources for its fight against the Taliban and other extremists, and for finding money.
"And I hope this meeting will help us work towards that goal for the tremendous challenge of IDPs in Pakistan. There's an enormous humanitarian challenge and the international community will need more resources to deal with that. And all of these countries coming together who have an interest in all of these same things: bolstering the government, fighting extremists, and dealing with the humanitarian situation, we hope we'll be able to coordinate the efforts better with a chance to talk about it."
Questioned if the US would be looking for humanitarian aid and military aid or both, the official replied:
"We'll be looking for all of the ways in which countries will be able to help bolster the government and contribute towards these goals."
Pakistan says it needs more than $ two billion for relief and rehabilitation for more than three million people displaced from Swat and other valleys in the wake of anti-Taliban offensive launched about two months ago.
(APP)
WASHINGTON: The United States will ask major industrialized nations to expand their economic support for Pakistan at this week's meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Italy to help the South Asian anti-terror ally deal with the ‘enormous humanitarian challenge’ to provide relief to millions of displaced people.
Undersecretary for Political Affairs William Burns will represent the US at a series of meetings on Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Italian city of Trieste from June 25-26 in advance of the G8 summit in July.
"We'll put a particular focus at this meeting on what they can do to help Pakistan, in particular, to bolster Pakistan's civilian government and its efforts to combat Taliban and extremists," a senior State Department told journalists at a briefing about US participation in the meeting, also to be attended by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.
"The EU (European Union) had a conference on Pakistan I believe it'll be its first one in history - last week and came up with a significant amount of money, I think $100 million, getting us towards the goal of $500 million for Pakistan. That's an important contribution of a nonmilitary sort, the likes of which we'll be looking to build on at the G-8 meeting," the official added.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers will also attend the meetings.
The official noted that the Italians are convinced that this is a global problem and can only be dealt with globally. The official expected an open dialogue on the challenges that in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the meetings.
"If we're all working together, and I think there's a significant amount of common interest in Pakistan in bolstering the Pakistani government and in providing more resources for its fight against the Taliban and other extremists, and for finding money.
"And I hope this meeting will help us work towards that goal for the tremendous challenge of IDPs in Pakistan. There's an enormous humanitarian challenge and the international community will need more resources to deal with that. And all of these countries coming together who have an interest in all of these same things: bolstering the government, fighting extremists, and dealing with the humanitarian situation, we hope we'll be able to coordinate the efforts better with a chance to talk about it."
Questioned if the US would be looking for humanitarian aid and military aid or both, the official replied:
"We'll be looking for all of the ways in which countries will be able to help bolster the government and contribute towards these goals."
Pakistan says it needs more than $ two billion for relief and rehabilitation for more than three million people displaced from Swat and other valleys in the wake of anti-Taliban offensive launched about two months ago.
(APP)
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