US promises to cater defence needs

ISLAMABAD—US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Michael Mullen on Tuesday assured that US will provide maximum assistance to Pakistan to cater its defence needs. US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Michael Mullen expressed these views during his separate meetings with President Musharraf and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Presidential Camp Office and General Head Quarters respectively on Tuesday.
Well-placed Sources told Online that the meeting lasted for quite a while in which host of issues were discussed in length. President Musharraf said that Pakistan had to bear heavy losses in fight against terrorism but we would continue to clamp down on terrorists in the best of national interest.
During the meetings, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Michael Mullen lauded Pakistan’s role in war on terror adding that it will keep on supporting Pakistan to curb the menace. He further said that US is ready to assist Pakistan in all the fields of common interest especially defence. US is ready to help Pakistan in combating terrorism along the Pak-Afghan Border, FATA and Swat, he maintained.
Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, United States, Admiral Michael Mullen also visited General Headquarters and called on Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. He remained with him for some time and discussed matters of professional interest with particular reference to security situation in the region.
The chief of the US military held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the army top brass Tuesday on his second visit to the crucial “war on terror” ally in a month, officials said. Admiral Mike Mullen arrived late Monday in nuclear-armed Pakistan, which is battling a wave of Islamic militant attacks blamed on Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and the hardline Taliban movement.
The visit by Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, coincided with a double suicide attack on a naval college in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday that killed at least five people. “He is here to continue developing the relationship military-to-military and to discuss a range of bilateral issues of mutual concern, including regional security,” US Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton told.
Mullen held talks with Musharraf at the president’s former army office in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, and had two meetings with army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, Colton said, without providing further details on their talks. Colton said he was here to follow-up on his last visit to Pakistan in early February.
A Pakistani government statement said Musharraf and Mullen “exchanged on the ongoing cooperation between the armed forces of Pakistan and the United States in the war against international terrorism. Musharraf reiterated “Pakistan’s unwavering commitment” to the “global war on terror,” the statement said.—Online