US official assures finance minister of working productively on the civilian side.
The US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides delivered the message to Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in a telephone call.
Nides said that there is a slowdown on the security side; however, the US will continue to work productively on the civilian side.
The United States suspended military assistance to Pakistan two months after al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed in a US-raid in Abbottabad.
Earlier this month, the US cancelled $800 million in aid and equipment to Pakistan which is more than one-third of the $2 billion it gives to Pakistan for security assistance as per the congressional bill approved by the two countries in 2009.
The cut-off came as a response to Pakistan’s expulsion of US military trainers as US officials claimed that the act made Washington ‘unhappy’.
Pakistan shut down a US program that had been training paramilitary forces, sending home more than 100 US trainers, and had threatened to close the base the CIA has been using for drone plane attacks on militant targets.
The relations between the two governments were strained after the uni-lateral US raid in Abbottabad. Meanwhile, the US has been urging Pakistan to improve its counter-terrorism strategy.
No comments:
Post a Comment