ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani and Afghan military officials have wrapped up two-day talks in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi after a terrorist attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed nine people.
Both sides discussed possible ways to enhance cooperation on countering terrorism, sources privy to the talks said on Saturday. No official statement was issued after the talks, concluded on Friday, and both sides refused to offer on-the-record comments.
Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani security officials raised Friday’s terrorist attack on an agriculture center in Peshawar which killed nine people, including six students, and injured 35 others.
Ghafoor told local TV channels that the “attack was planned by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on the Afghan side of the border,” and that the TTP “handlers in Afghanistan had been in contact with the attackers.”
TTP spokesman Mohammed Khurasani had claimed responsibility for the attack.
The militant group released photographs of the attackers, sitting with the TTP chief Maulvi Fazlullah, and also posted a video of the attack online.
Afghan Chief of General Staff Gen. Mohammed Habib Hesary led a seven-member delegation in the talks with Pakistani counterparts.
The Pakistani delegation was led by Director General of Military Operations Maj. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza, according to sources.
Pakistani and Afghan officials shared similar concerns about the presence of their armed opponents in both countries, which is one of the major obstacles in bilateral relations.
Kabul had long claimed that Afghan Taliban leaders operate from Pakistani soil, and Pakistani security officials insist the TTP and the Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar have sanctuaries in Afghan border regions.
Pakistani officials renewed their calls on the Afghan side to take up measures to secure the border and stop the cross-border movement of militants.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have a border of nearly 2,600 km, mostly porous, and the Pakistani Army is presently fencing the border.
Sources told Arab News that the Afghan officials raised the issue of “shelling into Afghanistan by the Pakistani forces.”
Pakistan rejects the Afghan claims and maintains that its troops never initiate fire and respond only when fired upon.
Afghanistan Chief of General Staff Mohammed Sharif Yaftali had stated in reported comments in Kabul before the visit that hundreds of Pakistani rockets had landed in border areas in eastern Kunar province in recent weeks and displaced hundreds of families.
Pakistani defense experts view the military talks with Afghanistan as significant.
Said Nazeer Mohmand, a retired Pakistani army brigadier, told Arab News on Saturday that the talks were important as both military officials met days ahead of the visit to Pakistan by US Defense Secretary James Mattis.
The Pentagon said on Saturday that Mattis would travel to Pakistan on Dec. 4, where he is planning to meet Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Bajwa.
“As fighting continues in Afghanistan, the US has been pressing Pakistan and Afghanistan to agree on common ground to counter the threat of terrorism in both countries,” Mohmand said.
He said the US can mediate between Pakistan and Afghanistan and mount pressure on both countries to bring clarity to their relations.
Najam Shinwari, an Afghan political observer, said although Pakistan and Afghanistan have not issued any statement about the talks, the face-to-face interaction itself is a positive development.
“Bilateral dialogue is important as both exchange views and find solutions to the problems,” Shinwari told Arab News on Saturday.
Pakistan, Afghan military officials wrap up security talks
Pakistan, Afghan military officials wrap up security talks
‘Keep dreaming’: NATO chief says Europe can’t defend itself without US
BRUSSELS: NATO chief Mark Rutte warned Monday Europe cannot defend itself without the United States, in the face of calls for the continent to stand on its own feet after tensions over Greenland.
US President Donald Trump roiled the transatlantic alliance by threatening to seize the autonomous Danish territory — before backing off after talks with Rutte last week.
The diplomatic crisis sparked gave fresh momentum to those advocating for Europe to take a tougher line against Trump and break its military reliance on Washington.
“If anyone thinks here again, that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US — keep on dreaming. You can’t,” Rutte told lawmakers at the European Parliament.
He said that EU countries would have to double defense spending from the five percent NATO target agreed last year to 10 percent and spend “billions and billions” on building nuclear arms.
“You would lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella,” Rutte said. “So hey, good luck.”
The former Dutch prime minister insisted that US commitment to NATO’s Article Five mutual defense clause remained “total,” but that the United States expected European countries to keep spending more on their militaries.
“They need a secure Euro-Atlantic, and they also need a secure Europe. So the US has every interest in NATO,” he said.
The NATO head reiterated his repeated praise for Trump for pressuring reluctant European allies to step up defense spending.
He also appeared to knock back a suggestion floated by the EU’s defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius earlier this month for a possible European defense force that could replace US troops on the continent.
“It will make things more complicated. I think Putin will love it. So think again,” Rutte said.
On Greenland, Rutte said he had agreed with Trump that NATO would “take more responsibility for the defense of the Arctic,” but it was up to Greenlandic and Danish authorities to negotiate over US presence on the island.
“I have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, so I didn’t, and I will not,” he said.
Rutte reiterated that he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan after the US leader caused outrage by playing down their contribution.
“For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home,” he said.
“I know that America greatly appreciates all the efforts.”
