Pullout strategy: Kayani assures NATO of help in Afghan exit

Army chief tells General Knud Bartels that Pakistan will support withdrawal of international forces.

ISLAMABAD:

Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani told a top commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) on Tuesday that Pakistan will facilitate a ‘smooth pullout’ of international forces currently stationed in Afghanistan.

General Knud Bartels, who is the chairman of Nato Military Committee, travelled to Islamabad for discussions on the current regional security situation, including the Afghan exit strategy, officials privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the two generals discussed matters of “mutual interest with emphasis on security situation in Afghanistan and coordination measures between Nato and Pakistan Army.”

It said the Nato commander was also briefed on Pakistan’s contribution to the war against terrorism, with special reference to the sacrifices rendered by the nation against the menace.

General Bartels also laid a wreath at Shuhada Monument and was presented with a guard of honour by a smartly turned out contingent of Pakistan Army.

However, sources revealed that the main focus of deliberations between Kayani and Bartels was on how to ensure a smooth pullout of US-led Nato troops from Afghanistan.



Kayani assured the visiting Nato general that Pakistan would extend all-out support in ensuring the withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s support in the exit strategy and the use of its land routes will be crucial once international forces, stationed in landlocked Afghanistan, begin withdrawal of troops and equipment. The US and Nato are due to pull out the bulk of their troops and equipment built up over the past decade by the end of 2014.

The issue of securing land routes gained renewed importance after Pakistan suspended the Nato supply routes last year for almost seven months. The move came in retaliation to a US airstrike which killed 24 soldiers at the border with Afghanistan.

The vital land routes were reopened after the Pakistan and the US signed a deal regulating the supplies for international forces stationed in Afghanistan.

Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has already said that the US would have Pakistan’s “support” as it withdraws its forces from Afghanistan by the end of next year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2013.