Counter-terror dialogue with US from today

Pakistan and the United States will kick off counterterrorism dialogue on Monday (today) in a move seen as the latest push by the two sides to reset their relationship particularly in security matters after the country saw a surge in terrorist attacks.

Syed Haider Shah, Additional Secretary (UN&ED) will lead Pakistan delegation at the two-day talks with the US delegation headed by Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Christopher Landberg.

"The dialogue is aimed at discussing common threat of terrorism, cooperation at multilateral fora and countering financing of terrorism," read a statement issued by the Foreign office here on Sunday.

The statement noted that the dialogue would provide an opportunity for both sides to exchange views and share their experiences and best practices in the domain of counterterrorism.

The two-day talks are taking place at a time when Pakistan is facing renewed threats posed by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan has gone up since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

The dialogue on counterterrorism has renewed hopes that Washington may not completely abandon Pakistan. Some observers believe that the US was going ahead with the dialogue despite the view in Washington that TTP was no longer a threat to the US.

The TTP in recent months has tried to suggest that their agenda was not beyond Pakistan in what seemed to be a deliberate attempt to avoid the US involvement.

The State Department spokesperson in one of his recent briefings said the TTP threat to Pakistan could be a threat to the US too. This indicates that Washington is keen to maintain counterterrorism and security-related cooperation.