By NNN-APP,
Washington : Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been retained by President-elect Barack Obama as the top Pentagon leader, has vowed to strengthen partnership with Pakistan in meeting with challenges of violent extremism along the Afghan border region.
“I think that we just need to continue looking at ways in which we can strengthen our partnership with Pakistan and do what we can to enable them to deal with the problem on their side of the border,” he told a media roundtable, a day after Obama announced his plan to retain Gates as the top defense official under his administration.
Gates was asked what could the incoming Obama Administration do
to deal with terrorists in the region in view of the president-elect’s comment that the menace of terrorism in South Asia posed a major threat to the United States.
Asked if there could a policy or tactics change to address the problem “fairly quickly” on the Pakistani side of the border, Gates underscored the critical importance of working cooperatively with Pakistan, saying the United States would not do it on its own and be sensitive to Pakistani concerns.
“I think that we are prepared to move as quickly as the Pakistanis are. I know they’re uneasy about the American footprint in Pakistan, and I think we have to be sensitive to their political concerns. At the same time, I mean, we cannot do this on our own.”
Gates also acknowledged Pakistan’s sustained campaign against terrorists in the rugged border region under the elected government.
He said al-Qaeda has shifted its focus from Iraq to Afghanistan‑Pakistan border region that poses threat to the United States and the solution lies in forging closer cooperation with the two South Asian countries.
“My view is that the solution there is involved in partnering with the Pakistanis and our and the Afghans efforts to work it, from the Afghan side of the border, and the Pakistanis working it from their side of the border. They (Pakistanis) confront violent extremists there as well,” he said.
Continuing, Gates said “they (Pakistanis) have over the last several months been moving fairly aggressively in taking on some of those, some of those groups in Bajaur and Swat and elsewhere.”