PM in Pakistan to discuss security

Cameron visits Islamabad in effort to improve relations with Pakistan and foster better co-operation in fight against terrorism David Cameron has taken a diplomatic gamble by pressing the “reset button” on his fraught relations with the Pakistan government telling the country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, at a series of meetings in Islamabad that he wants to work with Pakistan’s security forces to fight the threat of terrorism. A year ago Cameron put British relations with Pakistan in the deep freeze by claiming its leadership was facing both ways on terrorism, remarks that caused huge anger across the Pakistan government, military and intelligence services. During his one-day make-up visit, accompanied by his most senior defence and security officials, Cameron offered Zardari £650m in aid to spread education, extended unprecedented intelligence co-operation and set up a joint “centre of excellence” in Pakistan to exchange knowledge on how to counter improvised explosive devices, the weapon of choice of terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also sought to reassure his hosts that he does not see India as Britain’s preferred partner in the region, saying instead he wants to see trade between Pakistan and the UK rise from £1.9bn to £2.5bn by 2015. The aid for education worth £650m over four years will go to train 9,000 teachers, purchase 6m new text books and build 8,000 schools. The scheme has been organised by Michael Barber, the former head of Tony Blair’s public services delivery unit. There are 17 million children in Pakistan not in school, including 7 million primary school age children. The money will make Pakistan the biggest single recipient of UK aid. In what represents a remarkable turnaround, British officials state they are convinced that the growing internal Muslim terrorist threat inside the country has led the leadership of the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI, to take a tougher role in combatting both the Pakistan Taliban, and al-Qaida. Both Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, Sir David Richards, the chief of the defence staff, and Sir John Sawers, head of overseas intelligence, are accompanying Cameron, and were in Islamabad only a month ago to prepare the ground for what is being billed as an enhanced security dialogue. At the lunchtime talks, Zardari brought his intelligence and defence chiefs. Around half all terrorist cells operating in Britain originate from Pakistan, the British intelligence services believe. Britain and the US have for years been frustrated at the way in which the ISI have maintained such close relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan. British officials indicated that they will be asking the Pakistan military as diplomatically as possibly when they plan to enter North Waziristan, the tribal heartland and sanctuary from which many terrorist groups operate. Both British intelligence and the CIA believe North Waziristan to be the region where most of the suicide bombings inside Pakistan and cross-border attacks on US-led foreign and Afghan forces are organised. The Pakistan army has taken big losses as a result of cleaning out other Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and seems to be holding back from tackling North Waziristan, partly due to striking a peace deal with extremists. Pakistani troops moved into South Waziristan in 2009. Pakistan says with 120,000 troops in the field, it lacks the military capacity at present to lead an assault on a mountainous area that might lead to a mass of refugees. In the absence of troops on the ground, Britain supports the deadly use of US unmanned drones to bomb terrorist targets in the area, a practice that is regularly denounced by Pakistan politicians as counterproductive, in breach of their sovereignty and leading to the death of innocent people. Between 2007 and 2011, about 164 drone strikes had been carried out, killing more than 964 militants. In Pakistan overall 3,000 civilians are thought to have lost their lives in terrorist attacks such as suicide bombings in the past year. Cameron’s officials say nevertheless they are working to build a different, broader long-term partnership with the Pakistan government in what is described as a “less transactional relationship” between the two countries. “We are not just coming with a set of immediate demands, but also listening about the risks they face and their own security problems. It is about building trust,” said one. Britain also thinks it is crucial to foster a better internal relationship between the military and politicians in a country that only returned to a shaky form of democracy three years ago. The danger for the British is if its new-found faith in the ISI proves to be unfounded, or that Pakistan is playing a waiting game until 2015, the deadline by which UK troops will leave Afghanistan. Cameron’s aides are buoyed by signs that Pakistan wants to do more to foster a political settlement in Afghanistan, and build better relations with India. Cameron opened his visit by seeing Pakistan’s national mosque, the Faisal masjid, the largest mosque in South Asia, and constructed with the help of Saudi money. He was accompanied by Lady Warsi, the Muslim cabinet member. Pakistan Foreign policy David Cameron Global terrorism UK security and terrorism Terrorism policy Afghanistan Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.