ISLAMABAD: A top official of the United States (US) government will lead an interagency delegation to Pakistan on March 6-7 to take part in a counterterrorism dialogue between the two countries and develop strategies to cooperate in relevant areas, the US State Department said on Friday, amid a surge in militancy in Pakistan. 

Following an uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan in recent months, particularly after the Pakistani Taliban called off their cease-fire with the government, the US said it was ready to “broadly assist” the South Asian country against militancy-related challenges. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate entity but aligned with the Afghan Taliban. 

The statement came after the Pakistani Taliban inmates seized a counterterrorism facility in Pakistan’s northwest in December, leading to the killing of three soldiers. The US said the Pakistani government was a partner when it came to the challenge of militant groups inside of Afghanistan and those along the Afghan-Pakistan border. 

“Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Christopher Landberg will lead a US interagency delegation to Pakistan March 6-7 to participate in the Pakistan-US Counterterrorism Dialogue,” the State Department said in a statement on Friday. 

“The United States and Pakistan will discuss the shared terrorist threats facing our two countries and develop policy-oriented strategies regarding cooperation in critical areas such as border security and countering the financing of terrorism.” 

Military cooperation between Pakistan and the United States spans over six decades, but it underwent a tactical renaissance since the militant attacks of September 11, 2001. 

During the US ‘War on Terror’ against the Taliban in Afghanistan, US-Pakistan relations were largely prompted by Washington’s short-term need for Islamabad’s cooperation to serve its security and strategic interests in Kabul. 

In return, the US continued to lend economic support and strategic patronage to the South Asian country. Pakistan, however, decries that it suffered huge losses due to the war in Afghanistan, while the US has blamed Islamabad for not adequately dealing with “terrorism.”