US official to visit Pakistan
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
RICHARD Boucher, Assistant US Secretary of State for South Asia, is due to visit Islamabad for top level security and counter-terrorism talks, officials said yesterday.
Foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam confirmed the visit but gave no immediate details. "He is planning a visit but I don't have a precise date," Aslam said.
US and Pakistani media have said he was due to arrive yesterday on a one-day visit and is expected to meet with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, among other senior officials.
Boucher's visit to the key US ally will be his second to Islamabad within a month.
It follows intense pressure on Musharraf to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda militants allegedly holed up in Pakistan's troubled northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
Boucher, who with two senior US officials met with Musharraf here in July, will have meetings with Pakistani officials, civil society members and political leaders to "discuss political developments, regional security and counter terrorism cooperation," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said in a report from Washington.
"The visit is part of regular consultations in the region," it said, quoting a US official.
"Pakistan is an important strategic partner on a broad range of matters — education, economic investment, counter-narcotics, security and counterterrorism," it quoted a US official as saying.
AFP
Foreign office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam confirmed the visit but gave no immediate details. "He is planning a visit but I don't have a precise date," Aslam said.
US and Pakistani media have said he was due to arrive yesterday on a one-day visit and is expected to meet with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, among other senior officials.
Boucher's visit to the key US ally will be his second to Islamabad within a month.
It follows intense pressure on Musharraf to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda militants allegedly holed up in Pakistan's troubled northwestern tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
Boucher, who with two senior US officials met with Musharraf here in July, will have meetings with Pakistani officials, civil society members and political leaders to "discuss political developments, regional security and counter terrorism cooperation," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said in a report from Washington.
"The visit is part of regular consultations in the region," it said, quoting a US official.
"Pakistan is an important strategic partner on a broad range of matters — education, economic investment, counter-narcotics, security and counterterrorism," it quoted a US official as saying.
AFP
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