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Pakistans military has swept terrorist groups from the nations once-lawless tribal areas, but the gains could be put at risk if the security situation across the border in Afghanistan is not brought under control, Islamabads diplomat in Washington said, stressing that his nation is waiting for the Trump administration to clarify its strategy for the Afghanistan conflict.

Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said his countrys reputation as a source of instability and a haven for jihadis is badly out of date. He argued that Pakistans economy is on a sharp upswing and that relations with Washington are stronger today than at any other time since the covert American commando raid that killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout six years ago.

There are some perceptions which are not fully up to speed with the new reality of Pakistan, a reality that has changed only very recently, Mr. Chaudhry told editors and reporters of The Washington Times. We have reversed the tide of terrorism, which had come down heavy on us.

Having just arrived in Washington in March, Mr. Chaudhry took care to neither openly praise nor criticize the Trump administrations foreign policy. As an honored guest of the U.S., he is eager to deal with the man whom American voters chose as their president, he said.

At the same time, he said Pakistan was a strong supporter of the global Paris climate accord. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement last week.

There are issues on which Pakistan has its own positions regardless of what the U.S. position is, said Mr. Chaudhry, noting that Pakistan is at risk of flooding as Himalayan glaciers melt. We supported the Paris talks. We committed to it.

On another front, the ambassador went to lengths to credit China just as much as Washington for helping spur remarkable economic progress. Pakistans economy is on pace to grow at an annual 6 percent rate next year, and predictions say it could emerge among the worlds top 20 by 2030 a dramatic rise from its current rank in the 40s.

The stock market in the predominantly Muslim nation of roughly 200 million people is booming, said Mr. Chaudhry.

The biggest foreign investment some $60 billion in recent years is from Beijing, which sees Pakistan as a key conduit for development in Chinas mainly Muslim western region, he said. China has poured money into energy projects aimed at easing Pakistans electricity shortages.

But the boldest investment is the development of a major deep-sea port in Gwadar, designed to open Pakistans southern coastline to trade routes in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, a critical link in Chinese President Xi Jinpings One Belt One Road growth strategy for wider Asia and beyond.

Moment of stability

The Chinese investments have coincided with a rare moment of political stability in Pakistan, after the nations first-ever successful transition from one democratically elected government to another in 2013.

The transition of power, which brought back former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, followed decades of military coups, assassinations and other upheaval, including massive anti-corruption demonstrations that marred the nations 66-year history.

Over the past decade, the instability was spiked by a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks by al Qaeda and other jihadi groups on civilian and government targets. But an aggressive counterterrorism campaign launched by the Sharif government in the northwest Federally Administered Tribal Areas has sharply reduced such violence, Mr. Chaudhry said.

The number of terrorist incidents, which used to be very high, up to 150 terrorist incidents per month on the average right up to 2014, is today down to single digits, the ambassador said. That has sent a very positive wave all across the country.

Mr. Chaudhry said hopes are high that foreign investment will grow amid prospects for another smooth transition after elections next year.

Pakistans improving economic picture means that the Koreans, the Turks, the European and corporate America are also coming in, with energy plants being built along the nations southern coastline. The next phase for us is to build a series of industrial zones, he said. We are expecting and attracting investments, and many of the European countries are particularly keen.

So with our labor, the Chinese want to bring in capital, and if the technology can come in from the West, I think it would be an ideal combination for everybody, the ambassador said.

The U.S. has sent roughly $2 billion a year in aid to Pakistan in the past two decades. The majority of the money was aimed at supporting the Pakistani military. But Mr. Chaudhry said corporate America is beginning to sense opportunities.

I think they are able to see what, perhaps, you and I are not able to see, he said.

General Electric Co. recently won a project bid to generate 3,600 megawatts of electricity in Pakistan, and Exxon Mobil Corp. has put together a consortium to spend roughly $800 million to build a liquefied natural gas terminal and gasifying plant near the new southern seaport.

[Its] why Procter and Gamble is there, why PepsiCo is there, why many companies are going there, Mr. Chaudhry said. Theyre not going because they want to put their money at risk; they are going there because they can see that there is some money to be made.

The trouble next door

But the ambassador stressed that all of Pakistans regional and economic ambitions could be derailed if the situation continues to deteriorate in neighboring Afghanistan, where the number of attacks by extremists, including the Islamic State, is on the rise.

On Wednesday, a massive truck bomb rocked the heavily fortified diplomatic quarter of Kabul, killing 90 people and underscoring the challenge facing Afghan leaders and American and Pakistani officials seeking to stabilize the war-torn country, Mr. Chaudhry said.

How does the United States want to deal with their huge investment in Afghanistan, both militarily and economically? We are waiting for it, the ambassador said. He was referring to a highly anticipated shift in U.S. strategy that the Trump administration has said will be announced in the coming weeks.

We think that the United States also wants to stabilize Afghanistan, he said. Why? Because you have invested hugely in blood and in treasure for the last 15 to 16 years [there].

One plan reportedly being circulated through the White House and the Pentagon calls for up to 5,000 more U.S. troops, with a matching commitment from NATO, which could bring to roughly 15,000 the total number of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Mr. Chaudhry did not take an explicit position on a proposed troop increase but said any use of military force should be tied to a push for a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. Such a push, he said, should include the pursuit of a peace process with the Taliban.

The jihadi insurgent group, which once harbored al Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan, has extended its grip on territory since U.S. forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014.

A modest surge of American forces now, said Mr. Chaudhry, might pressure the Taliban to embrace peace talks with the U.S.-backed government in Kabul that have stalled for years. Once [the Taliban] are weakened, they will come to the table, the ambassador predicted, but he said the Afghan government should lead the peace process.

Pakistans proximity to the situation is delicate. Despite its internal success against jihadi groups over the past three years, Islamabad faces accusations that its intelligence services are clandestinely backing certain extremist groups inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan also harbors millions of Afghan refugees. The ambassador said Islamabad hopes they will be allowed to return home soon.

Afghan intelligence officials claimed that one that of those groups, the Haqqani network, was responsible for the attack in Kabul last week.

Mr. Chaudhry vehemently rejected the accusation during his interview with The Times. Pakistan has absolutely nothing to do with the Haqqanis and the Taliban, he said. They do not represent the views of my people and we have squeezed the space on them in Pakistan.

Excerpt from:
Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan's ambassador, awaits Trump's ... - Washington Times

While world attention shifted to two terrorist incidents in the centre of London on Saturday, June 3, citizens of another capital were coming to grips with more terror.

At least 90 people were killedWednesday, May 31 when a bomb exploded outside the German embassy in Kabul. More than 400 were injured.

The blast was just the latest in a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan's capital over the past year. In March, gunmen dressed as medics shot more than 50 people at a hospital. In January, 33 people were killed and more than 70 wounded near the new parliament building.

Afghan residents wounded in a car bomb attack receive treatment at a hospital in Kabul on May 31, 2017. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images)

This week's carnage once again shines an international spotlight on the on-going trauma of Afghanistan. After 16 years of foreign intervention, the country remains plagued by war, corruption, lawlessness and grinding poverty. Some estimate that the Taliban controls more territory nowthan it did before the NATO mission began. Afghanistan remains a haven for more than a dozen recognized terrorist groups,which undoubtedly have tentacles into the West.

The cost to the U.S. alone has been more than 800 billion dollars; 2,000 Americans have been killed. Canada's Afghan war ended in March of 2014. 158 soldiers were killed, and more than 2,000 were injured.

The United States is now considering sending as many as 5,000 more troops, to help fight the longest war in its history.

But will an infusion of troops make a difference? And what would victory in Afghanistan look like?

Michael talks to Paul Rogers,professor of peace studies at Bradford University, and International Security Advisorfor openDemocracy. His most recent book is "Irregular War: ISIS and the New Threat From the Margins."

Click 'listen' above to hear the interview.

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Is the war in Afghanistan "unwinnable"? - Home | The Sunday ... - CBC.ca

West Indies won the second of three T20 matches in the series, ensuring them a win against visiting Afghanistan.

West Indies clinched the three-match T20 series against Afghanistan on Saturday with a 29-run victory in St Kitts.

The win, on the back of Friday's six-wicket win at Basseterre, means West Indies now hold a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

In a game reduced to 15 overs due to rain, West Indies totaled 112-3 after winning the toss.

Skye News Sport reported Afghanistan slumped to 19-3 in pursuit of a revised target of 123 and they were well short on 93 when top scorer Karim Janat was the last man out for 20, with nine balls remaining.

The third and final match in the series takes place at the same venue at Warner Park on Monday.

This match will offer Afghanistan a chance to re-strategize and prepare for the One-Day International series against West Indies that will follow.

Continued here:
West Indies Clinch T20 Series Against Afghanistan - TOLOnews

Senior U.S. intelligence officials are warning thatthe India-Pakistan rivalry could pullChina into Afghanistan.First Posthas the highlights:

Pakistan is concerned about international isolation and sees its position through the prism of Indias rising status, including New Delhis expanded foreign outreach and deepening ties to the US, said National Intelligence Director Dan Coats

Pakistan will likely turn to China to offset its isolation, empowering a relationship that will help Beijing to project influence in the Indian Ocean, the Dawn quoted Coats as saying. []

Pakistan desires for Afghanistan some of the same things we want: a safe, secure, stable Afghanistan. One addition there is no heavy Indian influence in Afghanistan, said Defence Intelligence Director Lt General Vincent Stewart.

They view all of the challenges through the lens of an Indian threat to Pakistan. So they hold in reserve terrorist organisations so that if Afghanistan leans towards India, they will no longer be supportive of an idea of a stable and secure Afghanistan that could undermine Pakistans interests, the General said.

The basic geopolitical dynamics here are hardly new: Pakistan has long worried about Indias influence in Kabul, and not without reason. William Dalrymples2013 essayon the three countries deadly triangle lays outa fuller picture. China is the freshingredient, however, and its role is going to be closely watched by an Indian leadership already wary of its growing involvement in South Asia.

As the United States ponders sending an additional 5,000 troops to the countrya number that increasingly seems perfectly calibrated to do very little to tip the balance decisivelythe situation on the ground could be getting messier still.

Continued here:
Is Pakistan Pulling China into Afghanistan? - The American Interest

Dustin George Staff Writer, The Free Press

The Department of Defense spent $6 million on a flock of goats to promote goat farming and industry in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, no one knows where those goats are or if they are even still alive.

Seven hundred thousand for one goat that you can buy right here in Lenoir County for $50. How ridiculous that tax payers money should be spent that way," said Congressman Walter B. Jones, R - Farmville, during the Kinston meeting of the Noon Rotary club.

Jones, who also represents Lenoir County in the House of Representatives, used the mystery goats as just one of a multitude of examples of wasteful spending in Afghanistan as part of his pitch to get American troops out of the country.

"Youve got people living right here that need help from Hurricane Matthew but yet we can find all these billions of dollars that we cant pay for to go to foreign countries," he said.

Calling Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires," Jones said he feels that after 16 years, it is time for America to pull its troops out of the country.

"We are trying to change a part of the world that doesn't want to be changed," he said.

Speaking to The Free Press after his presentation, Jones said he has been petitioning House leadership since the days of John Boehner, who left Congress in 2015, to hold a debate on America's future in Afghanistan.

He recently co-sponsored a resolution to have such a debate in the House of Representatives and said he's written multiple letters to House Speaker Paul Ryan about the issue, but hasn't made much headway.

You have 300 members of Congress today that were not there (in 2001). They werent part of the debate," he said.

Jones, who was in Congress in 2001, said he still believes the U.S. was correct to invade Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, though he believes it was a mistake to invade Iraq in 2003.

Jones told The Free Press, Speaker Ryan - or someone writing Jones on the speaker's behalf - has told him the Speaker is looking to committees for guidance and promising to do a better job of monitoring the expense of keeping troops in Afghanistan.

We havent done a better job of monitoring the expense for 16 years. Its a joke," Jones said. We didnt want to know how you are going to manage the money. Give us a debate on our responsibility of sending a young man or woman to die.

Getting America out of Afghanistan is, Jones said, part of a bigger responsibility the government has to deal with the current national debt, which is approaching the $20 trillion mark.

That debt, he believes, could one day become a bigger threat to American security than any outside faction.

People say we will wait on the next generation of children to deal with it. Thats not fair to them," he said.

The debt problem isn't just the fault of one political party over the other, Jones said, calling out Democrats and Republicans in Congress for "spending money we don't have in the bank" each year.

When it comes to the failure of the Republican Party to create substantial health care reform, however, Jones was quick to call out his own party.

Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, Jones said he wanted to see congressional representatives spend two months holding meetings across the country to learn from constituents what was liked and disliked about the Affordable Care Act by the people covered by the law, then use that feedback to craft a new law to replace it.

But what did we try to do? Jam it in three weeks. Jam a bill of such importance in just three weeks. Many of us didnt even know the cost of it," he said.

Jones was quick to point out he was one of only 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote against the American Healthcare Act. After the bill passed the House of Representatives, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would leave 23 million Americans without health insurance.

The failures of that bill, Jones said, were indicative of a larger problem in Congress today.

"This is probably one of the most confused sessions of Congress Ive seen since Ive been there, talking about the first five months," Jones told The Free Press.You get one moment that the healthcare bill is dead and then they work it out of course, thats the leadership of the House and Senate. It comes back and you pass a bill that the Senate says they arent going to take it up anyway. So we pass a bill, I didnt vote for it as you well know. Then the president who talks about tax reform and gives you a one pager, nobody can figure that out. Its just a confused time.

While he couldn't say exactly what a health care bill would have to contain to earn his support, Jones did say he wants something that covers pre-existing conditions for patients."

Dustin George can be reached at 252-559-1077 or Dustin.George@Kinston.com.

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Walter Jones talks debt, health care, need to leave Afghanistan at Rotary meeting - Kinston Free Press