Naval cooperation will improve Pak-US ties, Pak Navy contributing to regional security: Admiral Noma

WASHINGTON, March 20 — The Pakistan Navy is contributing vitally to security of the region through sustained fulfillment of its maritime responsibilities and closer cooperation between Pakistan and the United States that will further bolster bilateral relationship, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir said Friday.

Admiral Bashir was speaking at a reception hosted in his honor by Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani.

The reception was attended by senior Obama administration officials and lawmakers including Senator Dianne Feinstein, CIA Director Leone Panetta, Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead and Pentagon officials.

The naval chief said he has been deeply touched by decoration of the distinguished US Legion of Merit award.

“This award is in recognition of the services of Pakistan Navy, which is working to stabilize the region,” he said referring to navy’s role in the North Arabian Sea.

Pakistan Navy, he said, is striving in cooperation with its allies to stop a number of illegal activities at sea, which affect regional security.

“The common objective is of course to make sure that this terrorist activity – which is affecting us more than anybody else – is eliminated from that region and (so that) we have a peaceful country, a peaceful region and a peaceful world. That is the objective we are working at.”

He remarked that despite constraint in resources, Pakistan Navy is extending critical cooperation to the collective effort by the international task force.

“We are not doing it for anybody else but we are doing it for ourselves, because being in that area we think it is our responsibility, our moral obligation and our duty to make sure that the region is safe and secure for us and for everybody else.”

The Pakistani and US navies have had historic relationship, he noted. Although there were ups and downs in the past, today the level of cooperation between them is “very great.”

“The understanding is there, the objective is clear, we are all working towards that common objective — the relationship between the two navies is a clear manifestation of relations between two countries and I am sure that with this cooperation the relationship between the two countries will also improve.”

He said the level of cooperation between Pakistani and US navies is quite high but there is still more room for further improvement.

The admiral pointed out that not very many naval officers from Pakistan Navy have visited the United States and said his own visit to the United States is his first ever in a career spanning over 40 years.

“We are very proud of the commitment and role of our country, our service and the (anti-terror) progress we have made,” the admiral stated.

The admiral praised the visionary leadership of Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead.

Welcoming the Naval Chief, Ambassador Husain Haqqani, earlier said Pakistan and the United States are in the process of developing a trusting and durable partnership. He said there is a recognition in the United States that the cyclical nature of ties between the two countries in the past has benefitted neither country.

The ambassador said in a sign of closer ties, the two countries will hold strategic dialogue at ministerial level next week.

“There is a recognition in the United States that a country as important as Pakistan cannot be subjected to whims of daily developments. Pakistan’s security concerns and Pakistan’s own aspirations and its concerns about neighbors should be important to the United States, they need to be understood. With that understanding we will be able to evolve a partnership that will bring our two countries together as two democracies.”

Pakistan is committed to stability of Afghanistan and the South Asian region, Haqqani said.

Prominent Pakistanis including former ambassador to the United States Maleeha Lodhi, American and Pakistani experts and journalists also attended the reception. (PNA/APP)

DCT/rsm

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