RAWALPINDI: General Raheel Sharif arrived in Germany on one-day official visit to participate in a conference of Chiefs of Staffs of the Armed Forces being held under auspices of US CENTCOM.
Beside the host General Joseph Votel, Commander US CENTCOM, Chiefs of Armies of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are participating in the conference.
Participants expressed their desire to improve multilateral military cooperation amongst their countries, to coherently meet the emerging security challenges and jointly defeat the menace of terrorism comprehensively.
In his address at the forum General Raheel Sharif highlighted the regional security environment, common challenges and way forward for the participating countries.
He said that Pakistan’s counter terrorism efforts have turned the tide against terrorism in the country. He said Pakistan is the biggest victim of terrorism both in terms of human lives and finances.
Elaborating the concept and success of Zarb-e-Azb, the COAS said that Pakistani security forces have valiantly fought terrorists upfront through an across the board, indiscriminate operation against terrorists of all hue and colour along with their abettors, financiers and sympathizers. He said that with unflinching support of entire nation terrorists’ ideologies and their narrative have been defeated and their sanctuaries and hideouts completely eliminated. Our efforts against residual threat are still continuing, and can’t be entirely eliminated without optimum cooperation between neighbouring countries.
The COAS said that success of our counter terrorism operation is a common dividend which should be optimised and shared. COAS also offered to benefit from Pakistan’s initiative and experiences in terms of regulation of cross border movement, socio-economic development of border regions and enhanced cooperation in terms of intelligence sharing.
Porous Western border and existence of some exploitable spaces, inadequate border management that allows terrorists move, lack of synergy, Coordination and institutionalised mechanism of intelligence sharing still remain our challenges.
These challenges were being exploited through confrontationalist and subervise approaches by hostile Intelligence agencies like RAW that spills blood of innocent people through indirect strategy. Highlighting the ongoing atrocities in IOK, COAS said India is unwilling to address historical disputes like Kashmir that directly fan misunderstanding and feed into persistent regional culture of conflict.
The COAS offered unlimited and sustained support to all participating countries in the conference particularly Afghanistan. He emphasised that route to a peaceful and prosperous region runs through a stable Afghanistan, which is achievable through comprehensive and coordinated approach. —INP