Rocca's Pak. visit a 'familiarisation trip'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 22. The United States Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Ms. Christina B. Rocca, is expected to be here some time next week on an official visit. According to sources, Ms. Rocca intends to spend some time in Pakistan and the visit is more in the category of `familiarisation trip' after she has taken over the new assignment.

In the course of her stay in Islamabad, she is expected to call on the Pakistani military ruler and President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Ms. Rocca is of the view that the United States has a long friendship with Pakistan, which ``must be sustained and enhanced''.

``Where we can cooperate, in areas such as counter- narcotics, we must continue. Where we do not cooperate optimally, for example on Afghanistan, we must work harder to show Pakistan the shared threat we face from the regime in Kabul,'' Ms. Rocca had said at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on May 17. The new Assistant Secretary of State is of the view that the Taliban in Afghanistan continued to pose a grave threat to the people of Afghanistan, to their neighbours and to the international community.

``This is an area of the world, which has suffered from our neglect, and the Afghan people deserve better. The current humanitarian crisis, grave human rights problems, decades of war, and emergence of world locus of transnational terrorism pose enormous challenges to both the US and the international community.''

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Section  : International
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