Relationship with Pakistan problematic, says NATO chief

NATO has said relationship with Pakistan is a bit problematic reason being unresolved issues regarding stepping up fight against terrorists in the border region of the country.
“The border region is really a big challenge. Whenever we engage with the Pakistani government and military, we encourage them to step up fight against terrorists and extremists in the region. It remains an unsolved problem,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview with Charlie Rose show of PBS News.
He, however, pressed for a strong partnership with Pakistan to find a solution to these issues.
Undeterred by the recent spurt in insider attacks in Afghanistan, he said, “Taliban will miscalculate the situation if they think their situation will be better by the end of 2014, because they will be faced with a very strong and capable Afghan security force.”
“They will not be in a stronger position. When we (will) stop our combat mission, a very capable Afghan security force will take over. We are building up the number of Afghan security forces and by 2014, we will have 352,000 Afghan forces. And more importantly, quality-wise they will be very capable,” the NATO secretary general said.
He said he was very “impressed” by seeing Afghan forces in action during his last visit to the country. Asserting that NATO’s security transition in Afghanistan remained on track and there was no change in its strategy, Rasmussen said NATO had outlined a clear roadmap for a gradual handover of responsibility to the Afghan security forces.
“We have 50 countries in our ISAF coalition — 28 NATO allies and 22 partners – and we have agreed on a roadmap according to which we will gradually hand over lead responsibility to the Afghans,” he said. Rasmussen stressed that the attacks will not derail its strategy in Afghanistan, but termed them as matter of “great concern”. “People ask, and legitimately so, why is it that we send trainers to help the Afghans and they turn their weapons against the very same trainers? These insider attacks threaten to undermine trust and confidence between foreign troops and Afghan security forces,” he said. Rasmussen said NATO commanders on the ground had introduced some temporary measures to prevent the attacks under which NATO forces would not conduct joint operations with Afghan security forces. “But these are prudent and temporary and I would expect these joint operations to be resumed as soon as the situation allows. And the timetable is still realistic, despite these temporary measures,” he said, adding that he expected joint operations to be resumed as soon as the situation allowed. “The fact is that we continue partnered operations at the level of battalions and above. So basically, we continue the strategy to train and educate Afghan security forces. There’s no change of strategy,” he said.