Britain urges Nato allies to help new Pakistan govt

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged Nato countries on Thursday to foster good relations with the new government in Pakistan and particularly in its dealings with Afghanistan. “I’ll be stressing … the importance of good relations with the new Pakistani government because it is obviously vital (to have) stability on both sides of the Afghan and Pakistan border,” he told reporters. “It will be important to take measures to build confidence with the new government in Pakistan and the government in Afghanistan,” he said ahead of a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels. Pakistan’s Peoples Party was expected on Thursday to nominate country’s new prime minister to lead a parliament that could decide the fate of President Pervez Musharraf. President Musharraf has been a key ally in the US “war on terror”, part of which is being fought across Pakistan’s northern border with Afghanistan, where a Nato-led force has struggled to overcome a Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
US drones have launched several strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border targeting members of al Qaeda, although Islamabad never confirms such attacks.
A Pakistan-Afghan expert with the International Crisis Group said that many of the activities of the insurgents are being prepared in Pakistan, in cities like Quetta and Peshawar. “There is of course some command and control in Afghanistan, but you’re talking about some very powerful actors who are cross border,” the expert, Samina Ahmed, told AFP on Wednesday.She said the April 2-4 Nato summit in Romania, where the alliance will lay out a comprehensive political-military plan to guide its operations in Afghanistan, would be a good time to enter into dialogue with Pakistan.
“Bucharest gives an opportunity to raise these issues with the new government in Pakistan, which is not sympathetic to the presence of operational command centres, but necessarily is not in a position to do anything about it right now,” she said.