According to a former Pentagon official, Pakistan has played an important part in promoting the Afghan peace process.
This comment was made by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs David F Helvey while speaking to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the United States on Saturday.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, asked him about his “assessment of Pakistan” and its intelligence services, as well as the part they are likely to play in the future.
“Pakistan has played an important role in Afghanistan. They supported the Afghan peace process. Pakistan also has allowed us to have overflight and access to be able to support our military presence in Afghanistan,” Helvey said.
He said that the US would continue to speak with Pakistan because of its help and commitment to Afghanistan’s future.
According to diplomatic sources, Pakistan has always permitted overflights and land access to the US to promote its military involvement in Afghanistan and will continue to do so.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told lawmakers in New York on Saturday that Pakistan wants a deep, strategic alliance with America that includes Afghanistan.
In the interests of both nations, he had stressed the need for “a broad-based strategic partnership.”
US President Joe Biden declared last month that all troops will leave Afghanistan by September 11 of this year.
On February 29, 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a historic agreement in Doha to bring permanent peace to war-torn Afghanistan and enable US troops to return home from America’s longest war.
The US promised to remove all of its troops from Afghanistan in 14 months as part of the Doha agreement with the Taliban.
There are reportedly just 2,500 American troops in Afghanistan, the smallest number of troops in the war-torn nation since 2001.
