Af-Pak -> Pak-Af Watch

Kati · Post by **Kati** » 28 Feb 2012 08:43

the secret cable.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nat ... story.html

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 28 Feb 2012 09:02

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 28 Feb 2012 11:04

http://www.dawn.com/2012/02/28/focus-on ... istan.html
US says can`t secure every inch in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: The White House said on Monday that the US was not in Afghanistan to secure every inch of its territory and the next Nato summit in Chicago would focus on turning over the country`s security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014. At a White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney also stressed the need for US soldiers to operate in a way that enhanced US cooperation with the Afghans and not in a way that detracted them from this objective.much is the killing four US service members is linked to the burning incident and how much of it is just the tipping point for an overall exhaustion and anger due to the American presence?” asked a journalist.
“We are keenly aware of concerns expressed in the past by (Afghan) President Karzai and others about the way that we operate there and the need to be sure that we operate in a way that enhances our cooperation and doesn`t detract from it,” Mr Carney said. “And we work very carefully to try to do that.”The US objective, he said, was to defeat those who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001. “And part of how we do that is working with the Afghan government to help stabilise that situation in that country, to allow them to have the security infrastructure that they need so that they can prevent Al Qaeda from returning and plotting again against the United States and its allies,” he said.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 28 Feb 2012 23:03

Nightwatch comments:

Afghanistan: Two suicide attackers detonated a car bomb on 27 February at the entrance to NATO's Jalalabad airport. At least nine Afghans died in the attack, including one member of the Afghan security forces, six civilians and two private security guards, Nangarhar Province's security chief Ebadullah Talwar said. The Taliban claimed the attack was retaliatory for the burning of the Korans by US soldiers at Bagram.

Comment: Even if the attacks and civil disorders subside, the riots are a vision of the endgame for US involvement in Afghanistan. It ends without trust, after a decade of sacrifices.

American and NATO personnel can no longer trust the Afghans they are training and advising. Afghans cannot trust the Westerners will respect them, their practices and their values. The Afghans want to survive; the Westerners want to change the Afghans. That creates a cultural divide that has always proven too great to bridge. Afghanistan's cultures were old long before modern Europe emerged or America was discovered.

Today, Wired published an article on the cultural ignorance of US and other NATO military personnel. After more than ten years, they still do not know that Christians and infidels cannot burn Korans, even if that it is the way the Western manuals say they must be disposed. Westerners cannot tell whether the riots are religious or political or both… and so much more.

Joint patrols, training and partnership are now not feasible. Temporary disengagement is the only short term answer that safeguards US and other international personnel. Nothing US and NATO commanders can do will reassure village imams that the westerners can be trusted to respect Islam, as the Afghan tribes understand and practice it.

Baikul · Post by **Baikul** » 01 Mar 2012 02:56

Not sure if this belongs here as it is isn't news or analysis (more of piskology and opinion), or is even any value add, but here goes anyway (please delete if not relevant).

Someone close to me just got back from a month and a half long semi-government training exercise in South East Asia, with very high profile (diplomats, senior UN officials) participants from all over the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Afghans - to a man - hated the lone Pakistani, shunned him him when they could, and mocked him to the point of casually and openly (and only semi-jokingly) calling him a suicide bomber and terrorist. In fact at the end of the assignment, when exit interviews were being conducted by officials of the program, one Afghan asked the Pakistani as they both waited for their turn- "Are you going to go in there with your suicide vest on"?

Interestingly (and makes sense when you think of it) none of the Afghan were Pashtun.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 01 Mar 2012 05:42

Part psyops by India, part truth.
Tajik airfield to be reconstructed

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 01 Mar 2012 18:58

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... 094QPXUxEM

Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in a shooting by an Afghan soldier and a literacy teacher at a joint base in southern Afghanistan, officials said, the latest in a series of deaths as anti-Americanism rises following the burning of Qurans by U.S. soldiers.

Both were killed on the same day that the top NATO commander allowed a small number of foreign advisers to return to work at Afghan ministries after more than a week of being locked down in secure locations because of the killing of two other Americans.

Thursday's killings raised to six the number of Americans killed in less than two weeks amid heightened tensions over the Feb, 20 burning of Qurans and other Islamic texts that had been dumped in a garbage pit at Bagram Air Field near Kabul.

member_20617 · Post by **member_20617** » 01 Mar 2012 19:55

svenkat wrote:http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... 094QPXUxEM

Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in a shooting by an Afghan soldier and a literacy teacher at a joint base in southern Afghanistan, officials said, the latest in a series of deaths as anti-Americanism rises following the burning of Qurans by U.S. soldiers.

Both were killed on the same day that the top NATO commander allowed a small number of foreign advisers to return to work at Afghan ministries after more than a week of being locked down in secure locations because of the killing of two other Americans.

Thursday's killings raised to six the number of Americans killed in less than two weeks amid heightened tensions over the Feb, 20 burning of Qurans and other Islamic texts that had been dumped in a garbage pit at Bagram Air Field near Kabul.

I suspect Pakis may have planted Qurans to portray Americans as villains in Afghanistan. This is the surest way to make American presence in Afghanistan untenable.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 01 Mar 2012 20:33

^^the guy said he did it accidentally and he didn't know what the books were as it was written in arabic

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 03 Mar 2012 22:37

ANP/ANA: they join our special forces learn our tactics and leave ad teach the Taliban. Pro Pakistan and Iran tv channels hosts calling for jihad against US.

NDS says many recruits for ANA and ANP joined with fake records, files and dubious backgrounds.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 06 Mar 2012 22:41

http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 963189.ece

Afghanistan has closed down camps run by Baloch nationalist groups where some 5,000 people were being trained, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has claimed.

The minister said that the camps had been shut down by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai on requests by the the Pakistan government.

“Karzai acted after Pakistan requested him to stop the activities of the Baloch nationalist groups and the Afghan President had admitted that some of the troubles in Balochistan province were originating from his country,” Mr. Malik contended

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 07 Mar 2012 02:07

West's game plan in Afghanistan hits a stumbling block

Sandeep Dikshit
Share · Comment (1) · print · T+

‘Russia is the most difficult partner, even more than Pakistan'

The western game plan of involving Afghanistan's neighbours in tackling the post-2014 situation, by which time the bulk of its troops would be back home, seems to have struck a stumbling block with Russia expressing its reluctance, said diplomats focussed on the Af-Pak region.

“Russia was the most difficult,'' they said of last-November's Bonn conference, which was the last of the mega meets that began with the same location in 2001 and travelled through London, Kabul and Lisbon.

Now, with the West pinning hopes on specialised meets such as the ones in Chicago, Tokyo and Ashgabad to bring focus on Afghanistan's immediate needs, western Af-Pak envoys who have visited India recently realised the need to quickly bring around most of the neighbours who were generally kept on the sidelines while the 10-year-war in the country raged, first with the al-Qaeda and then with the Taliban.
‘Iran not a bad partner'

Despite the U.S. and European Union's attempts to bring Iran to its knees by hitting at its mainstay of oil exports, diplomats described Tehran as “not a bad partner” in stabilising Afghanistan due to its shared concerns of narco-trafficking, Taliban's viciousness in the social sphere and anti-Shia orientation.

But it was Russia which was a cause for concern because its “proxies,” as a western Af-Pak envoy who visited India recently described Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztstan and Kazakhstan, are also likely to align with Moscow because of the closely guarded NATO plans of leaving behind a military presence. Only Turkmenistan, which styles itself as the “Switzerland of Central Asia” (because of its ‘neutral' position), seems enthusiastic.

“Russia is the most difficult partner, even more than Pakistan. Even China did not support the Russian position at the Bonn conference,'' they said.

With the tough task of going beyond platitudes now looming ahead, the West would need China, Russia and the four Central Asian countries to subscribe to the formulas being discussed in western capitals, including Brussels, where the military component of western forces in the post-2014 era is being discussed.
Funds from China

The West has great expectations from the cash-flush China in contributing to the upkeep of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) as well as development projects.

“We are in the midst of discussions on sharing the costs of maintaining the ANSF” they said, while acknowledging that the present strength of 3.52 lakhs was unsustainable and pushed solely by the U.S. overriding reluctance by the European countries.

In addition to the commitments for maintaining and “monitoring” the ANSF, talks in Tokyo would deliberate on the financing of confidence-building measures in the security, economic and cultural fields that are being drafted in Kabul.

With the western countries already contributing substantially in Afghanistan for the past decade, additional funds are likely to come from other countries such as China.

Diplomats said they could not understand Russia's resistance to falling in line with the “world community.” But with neither the West's military plans in the post-2014 era having been spelt out nor the fine print of quid pro quo expected from Kabul in return for sustained aid till 2024 clear, officials here expect a long line of Afghanistan's neighbours — Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Kyrgzistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — to still remain on the sidelines.

FFS! India needs to be funding ANA upkeep, West is handing Afghanistan to the wolves. India seriously needs to engage Moscow and Iran to get its act together and come up with some cash. I can see that involving India becomes an issue for TSP (which they are so concerned about not hurting negotiations with Taleban).

I can understand the central asian states reluctance because it will become Pakhtun v northern issue again and Russia is worried about any trap set by the west.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 07 Mar 2012 02:31

shyamd wrote:India needs to be funding ANA upkeep, West is handing Afghanistan to the wolves. India seriously needs to engage Moscow and Iran to get its act together and come up with some cash. I can see that involving India becomes an issue for TSP (which they are so concerned about not hurting negotiations with Taleban).

I can understand the central asian states reluctance because it will become Pakhtun v northern issue again and Russia is worried about any trap set by the west.

If West can deliver Baluchistan to the Indians, Indians will look after Afghanistan! The West then need not worry!

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 07 Mar 2012 16:26

6 more Brit victims in Afghanistan.The total now crosses 400.Tragic how century after century,the Brits return to theor old battlefields and spill more British blood on Afghan's dusty soil.Kipling must be revolving in his grave!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... t-400.html

Six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan as war death toll climbs past 400
Six British soldiers have been killed when their armoured vehicle was caught in an explosion in the single biggest British loss of life in the Afghan campaign for six years.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 08 Mar 2012 23:47

Pak dreams of 'strategic depth" in Afghanistan are a Afghantasy!

Afghantasy = Afghan + Fantasy

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 09 Mar 2012 00:44

Poaqtacia Destroyed

Obama, Karzai agree to continue ‘partnership’

WASHINGTON: United States President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed in a video conference on Thursday to continue a “partnership” tested by violence sparked after US troops burned Holy Qurans.The two leaders also discussed regional security and Afghan-led reconciliation talks with the Taliban, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.“The leaders noted progress toward concluding a strategic partnership that reinforces Afghan sovereignty while addressing the practical requirements of transition,” he added, referring to the deal that would lay out US involvement in Afghanistan beyond 2014, when most foreign combat troops are due to leave.The agreement has been held up for months by disagreement over night raids and control of detention centers now managed by foreign forces.Carney also noted an agreement by both leaders to stay in close contact as the transfer of power nears.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 11 Mar 2012 01:10

http://www.examiner.com/afghanistan-pol ... pakistan-1
Afghanistan: De-Pashtunization of Pashtuns by Taliban & Pakistan

For more than a thousand years the Afghan nation, and Pashtun tribes in particular, have resisted all foreign efforts of domination. Efforts by great empires have failed to suppress rich Pashtun culture and traditions, created during ancient Silk Road trading, the Jirga, language, art, music, song, poetry, dance, sports, food, humor, hospitality, etc... What great empires have failed to do is now being attempted by a late-comer, mini and sham-empire -- a collection of disjointed provinces known as Pakistan.Pakistan, using its indoctrinated proxy Taliban, has insidiously and perniciously forced the greatest damage to the identity, society, culture, traditions and posterity, of the Pashtuns. On the pretext of "Jihad", the Punjabi dominated Pakistani establishment has steadily reduced and de-Pashtunized the proud Pashtun community into pawns on the strategic chess-board.Since inception of Pakistan in 1947, the Pakistani state has only accepted either ultra-conservative Muslim nationalists or fundamentalists as the "sole anchorman" of the Pashtuns. It is not the Pashtun ethnicity of the Taliban that seeks Pakistan's support; it is the non-traditional ideology of the Taliban -- an ideology that purges traditional ethnic Pashtun identity that endearingly elevates the Taliban to the Pakistani establishment. Rephrasing, Pakistan is backing the Taliban not because they represent Pashtun nationalism but because they reject Pashtun nationalism; ever since the detachment of colonial overlords in the subcontinent, Pashtun culture has been an irritant factor to the Punjabi dominated Pakistani state. In the Pakistani scheme, anything that emphasizes Pashtun identity, culture, language, traditions must be suppressed or metamorphosed to serve the Punjab interests of Pakistan.
the nexus between the mafia and the mullah, which suited the Pakistani establishment perfectly; it allowed the exploitation of the Pashtun tribesmen as cannon fodder for the various misadventures of the Pakistani state, starting with the "tribal invasion" of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 and culminating with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s.
is fear of a Pashtun awakening that the Pakistanis have kept the Pashtun Tribal belt as a regressive anthropological cattle ranch where the social, cultural, educational and political development of the people remains medieval while adjoining areas - the so called "settled areas" - show some semblance of modernity. Pakistanis justify their FATA "reservation" policy based on arrogant colonial British who portrayed the Pashtuns as free-spirited, noble savages who lived by their own code of ethics and tolerated no attempt to curb their autonomy, much less their independence. The natural consequence of letting FATA become the "wild west" of Pakistan is that it remains under developed, under-educated and under-represented, and unfortunately, women have suffered the worst; being treated no better than commodities.Pakistan's policies, tactics and strategies towards the Afghan Pashtuns have been nothing short of devastating and are characterized by Pakistan's support for the Islamo-fascist Taliban; in post 9/11, Pakistan never changed course strategically in Afghanistan. In fact, after a two year recuperation time window, the Taliban regrouped after 9/11; then Pakistan unleashed them back into Afghanistan

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 11 Mar 2012 16:53

Shed 'Gandhigiri' approach with Pakistan, Afghan scholars urge India

Submitted by admin4 on 11 March 2012 - 1:59pm

India News

By Sarwar Kashani, IANS,

New Delhi : Thank you, India for helping Afghanistan, but it is time to be aggressive in dealing with Pakistan and assert the "natural role" of a leader in the South Asian region, particularly over the Afghan issue, scholars from the war-torn country say.

The scholars who were in New Delhi to attend a South Asian conference were of the view that India's approach towards Pakistan had been "too soft", and that needed to be changed.

"Balance of power in the South Asian region has shifted long back. India has advanced economically as well as militarily far more than Pakistan. But I don't understand why India is still in the early 80s mentality," said Haroun M. Mir, a US educated Afghanistan analyst who was an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's former defence minister

"India has a natural role to play in South Asia and it should assert its role," Mir, the director Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies, told IANS.

He said this was "particularly true in the context that Pakistan is already in deep trouble due to its internal conflict and palpable political uncertainty".

"Don't make concessions to Pakistan. Enough of Gandhigiri now. You are seriously accepting being slapped again and again in the face," he said, referring to terror strikes, including the 2008 Mumbai attack, in India blamed on Pakistan.

He was of the view that India was "unnecessarily justifying" its $2 billion Afghanistan rebuilding programme. "We don't need to justify everything. You can have bilateral relations with any country."

He said India could contribute "hugely" for stability in the South Asian region, including in Afghanistan.

"I know India cannot send troops to Afghanistan but it can help Afghanistan militarily in terms of providing training and equipments to its fledgling security forces."

The view was shared by another Afghan scholar Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, former journalist and government communication officer, who now heads a government funded think-tank, the Regional Studies Center, in Kabul.

"India's role has been positive and we are truly grateful for that. But we expect more because India is a major power in the region," Liwal said.

"It is only Indian philosophy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend," he said, recalling the saying of 300 century BC Indian scholar Chanakya, the author of ancient Indian political treatise called Arthasastra.

"I am not for a moment suggesting military conflict with Pakistan, but you can fight it out with Pakistan politically and diplomatically. You have the clout in the world to cut Pakistan's influence in Afghanistan.

Liwal said Afghanistan was facing "lots of obstacles from Pakistan and Iran" towards its peace and stability and was looking towards India particularly in the backdrop of US drawing down its troops from the country.

"Physical presence of Indian troops won't be a good idea. But our government may be looking at the idea of getting army training and equipment from India. They are looking at more cooperation with India in social and education sectors and also in security areas."

The two scholars were speaking to IANS on the sidelines of the third edition of the Asian Relations Conference on "Transforming South Asia: Imperatives for action" organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and the Association of Asian Scholars at Sapru House here.

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at [email protected])

Very soon, let everything fall into place first.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2012 20:50

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_n ... lians.html

JSOC trooper goes feral and kills 16 women and kids in a afghan village rampage

quote:
REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- A lone American serviceman slipped away from his base in southern Afghanistan before dawn Sunday and went on a methodical house-to-house shooting rampage in a nearby village, killing 16 people, nearly all of them women and children, according to Afghan officials who visited the scene.

The NATO force confirmed that the assailant was in military custody, and that he had inflicted an unspecified number of casualties during the shooting rampage at about 3 a.m. Sunday. The U.S. Embassy called for calm and expressed deep condolences; the Taliban referred to the killings as an “act of genocide.”

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that the shooter was a staff sergeant and a member of the U.S. special operations forces who had been involved in training the Afghan police.

The incident, potentially the worst atrocity of the 10-year war to be deliberately carried out by a single member of the Western military, represents a stunning setback to U.S.-Afghan relations, already shaken by last month’s burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. military base north of Kabul.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 11 Mar 2012 20:51

most likely a green beret.

Samudragupta · Post by **Samudragupta** » 11 Mar 2012 21:42

Paki Jernails having lost control of the Mangos....now its the turn of the US....let the generals step aside and allow the obvious....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRDIXzCs ... re=related[/youtube]

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 11 Mar 2012 21:49

Good going by great warriors of unkil sham...pissing on dead bodies, burning religious texts in public, deliberate killing of women and children. The last one remaining is the rape of women and children. at this rate I am sure we will hear that also very soon.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 12 Mar 2012 00:00

Jhujar wrote:Afghanistan: De-Pashtunization of Pashtuns by Taliban & Pakistan

They too will need a Rajiv Malhotra!

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 14 Mar 2012 00:12

http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-fire-afgh ... 48216.html

Taliban insurgents opened fire on two brothers of Afghan President Hamid Karzai as they left a memorial service Tuesday for 16 villagers allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier.

Qayum and Shah Wali Karzai and other top Afghan officials in their delegation escaped in their cars unharmed from the ambush in the country's south.

But one Afghan soldier was hit in the head almost immediately and died, while two other Afghan army personnel were wounded in the 20-minute firefight that ensued in one of the two villages in Kandahar province where the killings had occurred two days before.

The gunbattle came as images of the aftermath of Sunday's killings spread across the country, and the public reaction — which at first seemed surprisingly muted — began to build.

In the east, students staged the first significant protest in response to the killings, raising concerns about a repeat of the wave of violent demonstrations that rocked the nation after last month's burning of Qurans by troops at a U.S. base.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack on the delegation in Balandi village in Panjwai district, an area considered the birthplace of the militant group. Previously, the movement had vowed to behead those responsible for the shootings.

The militants rode to the village on motorcycles, police said. They ambushed the delegation from the cover of a distant row of trees. Afghan security forces fired back, killing three militants, said Gen. Abdul Razaq, the Kandahar police chief. The two Afghan army personnel who were wounded included a soldier and a military prosecutor, he said.

Nine of the 16 civilians killed on Sunday in Balandi and Alkozai villages were children and three were women, according to the Afghan president. Some of their bodies were burnt after they were killed.

On Tuesday, villagers who testified to the delegation insisted there were two soldiers, citing relatives who survived the attacks.

Mohammad Wazir, who was away from his home in Balandi village that night, said his sister saw two U.S. soldiers enter the house and start shooting. Everyone started running different directions, and she ran to the kitchen to hide. When the gunfire ended and she re-emerged, 11 of her relatives were dead.

In Alkozai to the south, a man named Sayed Jan said his cousins told him that they saw two soldiers come into his house and start firing. Jan's relatives barricaded their door and snuck out another exit. Jan was away in Kandahar city that night.

The villages are about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Kandahar city.

"But the people were just shouting and they were very angry. They didn't listen to the governor. They accused him of defending the Americans instead of defending the Kandahari people," Ayubi said.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, meanwhile, hundreds of students staged the first significant protest in response to the tragedy, shouting angry slogans against the U.S. and the American attacker.

The killings have caused outrage in Afghanistan but have not sparked the kind of violent protests seen last month after American soldiers burned Muslim holy books and other Islamic texts.

But the students protesting at a Jalalabad university, 80 miles (125 kilometers) east of the capital Kabul, were incensed.

"Death to America!" and, "Death to the soldier who killed our civilians!" shouted the crowd.

Other protesters burned an effigy of President Barack Obama and set fire to a cross to show their disgust for the Christianity they associated with the United States.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that the soldier should be tried as a war criminal and executed by the victims' relatives.

Photographs of dead toddlers wrapped in bloody blankets in Panjwai started to make the rounds in Afghanistan on Monday. The images were broadcast on Afghan TV stations, and people posted them on social network sites and blogs.

U.S.-Afghan strains appeared to be easing as recently as Friday, when the two governments signed an agreement to gradually the transfer of Afghan detainees to Afghan control — a key step toward a pact to govern U.S. forces in the country after most combat troops leave in 2014.

After the shooting, Afghan lawmakers called for a halt to negotiations on a bilateral pact with the U.S. until the soldier behind the shooting faces trial in Afghanistan.

ManuT · Post by **ManuT** » 14 Mar 2012 07:27

Almost fiction: Talibanistan from Nat Geo

A prequel made in 2010 from pre-OBL bumping days, when TSP was fighting taliban AQ.

Frontier Corps & Sundry Scouts look more like the Spent Force.
Some worthwhile interviews of the children pushed b-washed into soosai.

[youtube]5hbA0vNkZmg&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]lw8glCDep5g&feature=related[/youtube]

Arav · Post by **Arav** » 14 Mar 2012 07:39

India keen on larger economic footprint in Afghanistan

Even as New Delhi keeps tabs on international conferences that will unveil the West's plans in the post-2014 situation when most NATO troops will leave Afghanistan, India is keeping itself engaged in a wide number of areas with the focus on the gradually unfolding economic opportunities.

With about 400 Afghans landing in India every day for reasons ranging from medical treatment to education, training, consultations on mineral tenders and reconciliation of insurgent groups, New Delhi is hoping to activate the Partnership Council which will push forward the India-Afghan strategic partnership agreement (SPA).

The Partnership Council, to be chaired by the two countries' respective Foreign Ministers, will have working groups to flesh out the intentions expressed in the SPA such as capacity building in the security, education and civil society sectors besides scouting for opportunities in the hydrocarbon and mineral sectors.

In addition to eyeing six petroleum blocks in the placid northern Afghanistan and copper mines in four different parts of the country — some wrecked by violence and others quiet, India will also be looking to safeguard the hard-won “jewel of Afghanistan's mining sector” — the Hajigak iron ore mine.

After winning three out of four Hajigak blocks, India is facing resistance from competitors who lost out, especially western companies that had tied up with local strongmen to form “joint ventures.”

Apart from the oil blocks whose fate will be known by June, India is also interested in at least three copper mines — one near Pakistan, the other close to Iran and the third near the Uzbek-dominated area.

Talks with Tehran

On a parallel track, India is talking to countries on Afghanistan's northern and western flanks to work out evacuation routes for minerals as well as to bring in aid and goods. Tehran is seen as an important player and India is keen to hold more meetings like the one held with at least a dozen countries in January this year during which seamless corridors from the Iranian ports of Chabar and Bandar Abbas to Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caucasus were discussed.

The India-built road which connects the Iranian border with Afghanistan's garland highway is already in place and a road from the Afghanistan-Iran border to Chabar is functional. Iran is now planning to construct a rail link to the edge of the India-built road and some other rail tracks that will provide alternative routes.

Security key factor

But security remains the key. Officials admit it will be a “long haul” before plans fall in place. In this respect, India is keeping a close eye on three factors — the military posture to be adopted by NATO after 2014, contours of a strategic pact that Afghanistan and the U.S. plan to sign and the political process involving the still-recalcitrant Taliban groups.

“Once the strategic partnership agreement is signed and the world is aware of NATO's plans, we will have a better idea,” said official sources. “More important is the political process,” they added, while referring to the several ideas that have been aired — such as talks between the U.S. and a Taliban faction in Qatar, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's call to Pakistan to bring out militants aligned with it out of the closet and Kabul's own efforts with local groups.

“We have to wait and see if Pakistan will be forthcoming in facilitating meetings between the government and opposition groups and whether U.S.-Taliban talks in Qatar can produce results. Other factors are the capacity of the Afghan security forces to combat threats and the mentoring role that NATO will play,” they added.

India appears to favour a “reasonable presence” of western troops so that there is no slide back to the pre-1996 situation when only the “forces of a neighbouring country were present.” India has in place contingency plans in case the security situation worsens but does not think that would happen if the international community remains involved in consolidating gains made over the past 10 years.

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 14 Mar 2012 20:24

Subramanian Swamy: What is Rahul doing in Nice, France with an Afghan Muslim girl domiciled in Italy. She was seen wearing a wedding ring!

http://twitter.com/#!/swamy39

hulaku · Post by **hulaku** » 14 Mar 2012 22:13

RoyG wrote:Subramanian Swamy: What is Rahul doing in Nice, France with an Afghan Muslim girl domiciled in Italy. She was seen wearing a wedding ring!

http://twitter.com/#!/swamy39

How is Rahul Gandhi's personal life relevant to this thread ?

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 14 Mar 2012 23:01

^Yeah. Rahul's personal life is probably more relevant to the election thread in burkha form.

Agnimitra · Post by **Agnimitra** » 14 Mar 2012 23:42

If Rahul marries an Afghan dame, then Gandhara would be sasural for The Family.

dnivas · Post by **dnivas** » 15 Mar 2012 00:47

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/ ... 6P20120314

Russia may give NATO a base for Afghan supply runs

Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday endorsed a proposal to allow NATO use of a southern Russian air base as a hub for transport of supplies to Afghanistan and suggested it was premature to withdraw troops from the war-torn country.

The proposal to use the base for a "combined" air, road and rail traffic to Afghanistan came originally from NATO in May 2011. It requires the Russian cabinet's go-ahead but no date for a meeting on the issue has been set.

Lavrov called the deal "a means to assist those who are eradicating the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan.

"We are helping the coalition... primarily out of our own national interest," Lavrov told lawmakers in a speech to Russia's lower house of parliament.

Russia has allowed Afghan-bound NATO transports through its territory since 2009 as an alternative supply route to convoys through Pakistan that have been pry to militant attacks.

But it has stopped short of allowing weapons transports.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 16 Mar 2012 21:29

From my archives:

This article from the Telegraph of Britainistan from Oct 8 2001, days after 9-11 is so much hot air and bullshit that its a real laugh to read this stuff after 10 years. It's all about self image. One set of people believe in themselves and their greatness while another set believe in their inferiority. I will name no names. Any conclusions anyone reaches is his/her own.

In this war of civilisations, the West will prevail

By John Keegan

Monday 8 Oct 2001
Issue number 45528

PRESIDENT BUSH'S threatened war against terrorism has begun. What is so striking at the outset is the brief lapse of time between its declaration and its outbreak.

The Gulf War, also led by the United States, took six months to prepare. This war, declared on September 11, the day of the atrocities, is in full swing only 27 days later. All the same stages have been gone through - organisation of an alliance, diplomatic preparation, positioning of forces. The first blow has been struck in one-sixth of the time.

Striking quickly, as well as hard, may be a quality of this war deliberately chosen, and with good reason. A harsh, instantaneous attack may be the response most likely to impress the Islamic mind. Surprise has traditionally been a favoured Islamic military method. The use of overwhelming force is, however, alien to the Islamic military tradition. The combination of the two is certainly designed to unsettle America's current enemy and probably will.

Samuel Huntington, the Harvard political scientist, outlined in a famous article written in the aftermath of the Cold War his vision of the next stage hostilities would take. Rejecting the vision of a New World Order, proposed by President Bush senior, he insisted that mankind had not rid itself of the incubus of violence, but argued that it would take the form of conflict between cultures, in particularly between the liberal, secular culture of the West and the religious culture of Islam. Huntington's "clash of civilisations" was widely discussed, though it was not taken seriously by some. Since September 11 it has been taken very seriously indeed.

If I thought Huntington's view had a defect, it was that he did not discuss what I think the crucial ingredient of any Western-Islamic conflict, their quite distinctively different ways of making war. Westerners fight face to face, in stand-up battle, and go on until one side or the other gives in. They choose the crudest weapons available, and use them with appalling violence, but observe what, to non-Westerners may well seem curious rules of honour. Orientals, by contrast, shrink from pitched battle, which they often deride as a sort of game, preferring ambush, surprise, treachery and deceit as the best way to overcome an enemy.

This is not to stereotype Afghans, Arabs, Chechens or any other Islamic nationality traditionally hostile to the West as devious or underhand, nor is it to stereotype Islam in its military manifestation. The difference in styles of warfare is borne out by the fact of military history. Western warfare had its origins in the conflicts of the citizens of the Greek city states who fought to defend the strictly defined borders of their small political units. Beyond their world the significant military powers, however, were nomads, whose chosen method was the raid and the surprise attack. Once they acquired a superior means of mobility, in the riding horse, they developed a style of warfare which settled people found almost impossible to resist.

The Arabs were horse-riding raiders before Mohammed. His religion, Islam, inspired the raiding Arabs to become conquerors of terrifying power, able to overthrow the ancient empires both of Byzantium and Persia and to take possession of huge areas of Asia, Africa and Europe. It was only very gradually that the historic settled people, the Chinese, the Western Europeans, learnt the military methods necessary to overcome the nomads. They were the methods of the Greeks, above all drill and discipline.

The last exponents of nomadic warfare, the Turks, were not turned back from the frontiers of Europe until the 17th century. Thereafter the advance of Western military power went unchecked. One Islamic state after another went down to defeat, until in 1918 the last and greatest, the Ottoman empire, was overthrown. After 1918 the military power of the Western world stood apparently unchallengeable.

The Oriental tradition, however, had not been eliminated. It reappeared in a variety of guises, particularly in the tactics of evasion and retreat practised by the Vietcong against the United States in the Vietnam war. On September 11, 2001 it returned in an absolutely traditional form. Arabs, appearing suddenly out of empty space like their desert raider ancestors, assaulted the heartlands of Western power, in a terrifying surprise raid and did appalling damage.

President Bush in his speech to his nation and to the Western world yesterday, promised a traditional Western response. He warned that there would be "a relentless accumulation of success". Relentlessness, as opposed to surprise and sensation, is the Western way of warfare. It is deeply injurious to the Oriental style and rhetoric of war-making. Oriental war-makers, today terrorists, expect ambushes and raids to destabilise their opponents, allowing them to win further victories by horrifying outrages at a later stage. Westerners have learned, by harsh experience, that the proper response is not to take fright but to marshal their forces, to launch massive retaliation and to persist relentlessly until the raiders have either been eliminated or so cowed by the violence inflicted that they relapse into inactivity.

News of the first strikes against Afghanistan indicate that a tested Western response to Islamic aggression is now well under way. It is not a crusade. The crusades were an episode localised in time and place, in the religious contest between Christianity and Islam. This war belongs within the much larger spectrum of a far older conflict between settled, creative productive Westerners and predatory, destructive Orientals.

It is no good pretending that the peoples of the desert and the empty spaces exist on the same level of civilisation as those who farm and manufacture. They do not. Their attitude to the West has always been that it is a world ripe for the picking. When the West turned nasty, and fought back, with better weapons and superior tactics and strategy, the East did not seek to emulate it but to express its anger in new forms of the raid and surprise attack. September 11 was a declaration of war. October 7 was the declaration of a counter-offensive. The counter-offensive will prevail.

Sir John Keegan is Defence Editor

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 17 Mar 2012 03:22

Noble knight Sir John ,will no doubt pontificate upon the latest killings of Brit soldiers in Afghan's "dusty soil",now crossing 400 as courageous heroes of the "thin red line" dedicated to hunting down the Taliban down like foxes.This reminds me of Oscar Wilde's famous quote about fox hunting,"the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"! He should also read his Kipling before spouting forth his frothy buffoonery!

Sathya,the torture, rapes (they practice upon their own female troops in the US and have been covering it up for 20+ years!) and murder of Moslem women in Iraq at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere by b*st*rd US male and female troops was rampant did take place and pics of the same were suppressed by the US,just as it is doing right now with the truth about the latest massacre of the innocents in Afghanistan,by the "Kandahar killers",where Karzai has expressed doubts about the US version.Conveniently,the accused solider has been whisked away to the US,who will later on get off scot free as being temporarily "insane" or some other short excuse.One standard for the US and others for the rest of the world!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... e-massacre

President Karzai casts doubts on US version of Afghan village massacre

President says US has not co-operated with his investigations and he questions whether there was only one attacker

Emma Graham-Harrison
guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 March 2012

Karzai meets masacre relatives in Kandahar
Afghanistan's President Karzai prays during a meeting with relatives of victims of the Kandahar massacre. Photograph: Photo Corbis

The President of Afghanistan warned he was frustrated over western killings of civilians, as he accused the US of obstructing an Afghan investigation into the massacre of 16 civilians last Sunday.

At a meeting with the investigation team and family members of the victims, most of them women and children, Hamid Karzai asked the army chief of staff to investigate villagers' claims that there was more than one attacker – contradicting the official US version of events. He also confirmed a demand made on Thursday that foreign forces leave Afghan villages.

"This has been going on for too long. You have heard me before, therefore, it is by all means the end of the rope here," he said of the killings, which he described as the latest of "hundreds" of such incidents nationwide. "This form of activity, this behaviour, cannot be tolerated." he said.

Karzai has always been outspoken about civilian deaths at the hands of foreign troops. But the latest broadside comes as his financial and military backers are grappling with the implosion of their strategy for Afghanistan. His words are likely to put more strain on the relationship between Washington and Kabul that some feel is already in crisis.

His call for an investigation into whether more than one person was behind the massacre implies that he does not trust the US military or political hierarchy to tell the truth about the killings.

"On the question of the account of the one person, supposedly, who has done this, the story of the village elders [in the Panjwai district of southern Kandahar province] and the affected people is entirely different. They believe it is not possible for one person to do that," Karzai told journalists after the meeting.

Many people in Afghanistan believe the US staff sergeant detained over the shootings did not act alone. "When I saw my wife's body, her hand had been cut off. This was not the work of one person," a man from a family who lost 11 members told the meeting. "Helicopters were over the village … we have witnesses that saw it was more than one person," he added, although, like all those who testified, he did not personally witness the attack.

Western military officials have said helicopters were sent to pick up the injured. Groups of soldiers seen later in the village were a search party sent out when the killer's absence was noticed, they said, and surveillance video backed up the conclusion there was a single killer.

Karzai said his investigators did not find the US surveillance video they were shown convincing. The army chief of staff reported to the meeting that a key US commander had not returned his calls while he was investigating the attack.

"The Afghan investigation team did not receive the co-operation that they expected from the United States, therefore these are all questions that [we] will be raising, and raising very loudly and raising very clearly," Karzai said, referring to whether the killer acted alone.

Afghans were weary of killings by foreign troops after "hundreds" of civilian casualty incidents, he told the meeting, a point he underlined when he told US President Barack Obama in a morning phone call that his call for foreign forces to leave Afghan villages was serious.

Rural settlements are not centres of terrorism, he added; the West should look instead to neighbouring countries, while Afghans could sort out their own disagreements.

The White House said later that during the conversation the two leaders "agreed to further discuss concerns voiced by President Karzai about the presence of foreign troops in Afghan villages".

If troops retreat to major bases and end patrols, as Karzai has demanded, it would mean an end to the western military approach in Afghanistan. Hopes of progress towards a political settlement were also dented by a Taliban announcement on Thursday that the group is suspending peace negotiations with the US.

Karzai and the Panjwai villagers also dismissed reports that before the shooting spree, the father of two had suffered some kind of breakdown. The New York Times quoted an unnamed US official saying he may have "snapped" after drinking alcohol illicitly.

"They said he was a madman, but how can a madman go out from headquarters? Why didn't he kill his friends there?" one village elder, who did not give his name, asked Karzai.

The lawyer for the staff sergeant accused of the killings said he is a decorated survivor from three tours of duty in Iraq. The Seattle attorney John Henry Browne said the soldier believed he would not return to a tour of duty before being sent to Afghanistan.

Originally from the US Midwest, the soldier had been injured twice in Iraq, and was loath to go to Afghanistan, Browne said. The day before the killings, he witnessed a friend having his leg blown off.

The staff sergeant was due to arrive at a detention facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, last night from Kuwait.

PS:US mass rapes in Iraq.U-Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3w2mGQ7V3Q

The Insider - US admits to rape, torture and murder in Iraq
http://theinsider.org/news/article.asp%3Fid%3D498 - Cached
US admits to rape, torture and murder in Iraq. ... According to Prof Shaker, several women held in Abu Ghraib jail were sexually abused, including one who was ...

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 17 Mar 2012 04:58

Philip ji,

Sorry didn't mean to ignore the time tested and favorite pass time of great warriors of unkil sham - rape and plunder of anything in sight including women and children.

In the *latest* series of what appears to be a deliberate narrative set to blame the cut&run from Af-Pak on the mischeifs of few soliders. Their jihadi & AlQ proxies will promptly follow up and do the logical by again raising tempers /violence and eventually takeover Afghanistan to our detriment.

Strategic defeat is perfectly OK so long they get to declare military victory in record breaking times everytime, burn and replenish their ammo, gain foothold in the region for decade together even if it means kill a several thousands here and there and main a few millions, seems to be paradigm.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 21 Mar 2012 03:23

Satya,here is veteran scribe Robert Fisk saying exactly the same things we've been saying about the Afghan massacres,that they are in keeping with US "tradition",My Lai,etc. and not the actions of a drunken grunt.

Robert Fisk: Madness is not the reason for this massacre

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 75737.html

Xcpts:

I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course. The 38-year-old staff sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, near Kandahar this week had no sooner returned to base than the defence experts and the think-tank boys and girls announced that he was "deranged". Not an evil, wicked, mindless terrorist – which he would be, of course, if he had been an Afghan, especially a Taliban – but merely a guy who went crazy.

This was the same nonsense used to describe the murderous US soldiers who ran amok in the Iraqi town of Haditha. It was the same word used about Israeli soldier Baruch Goldstein who massacred 25 Palestinians in Hebron – something I pointed out in this paper only hours before the staff sergeant became suddenly "deranged" in Kandahar province.

"Apparently deranged", "probably deranged", journalists announced, a soldier who "might have suffered some kind of breakdown" (The Guardian), a "rogue US soldier" (Financial Times) whose "rampage" (The New York Times) was "doubtless [sic] perpetrated in an act of madness" (Le Figaro). Really? Are we supposed to believe this stuff? Surely, if he was entirely deranged, our staff sergeant would have killed 16 of his fellow Americans. He would have slaughtered his mates and then set fire to their bodies. But, no, he didn't kill Americans. He chose to kill Afghans. There was a choice involved. So why did he kill Afghans? We learned yesterday that the soldier had recently seen one of his mates with his legs blown off. But so what?

The Afghan narrative has been curiously lobotomised – censored, even – by those who have been trying to explain this appalling massacre in Kandahar. They remembered the Koran burnings – when American troops in Bagram chucked Korans on a bonfire – and the deaths of six Nato soldiers, two of them Americans, which followed. But blow me down if they didn't forget – and this applies to every single report on the latest killings – a remarkable and highly significant statement from the US army's top commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, exactly 22 days ago. Indeed, it was so unusual a statement that I clipped the report of Allen's words from my morning paper and placed it inside my briefcase for future reference.

Allen told his men that "now is not the time for revenge for the deaths of two US soldiers killed in Thursday's riots". They should, he said, "resist whatever urge they might have to strike back" after an Afghan soldier killed the two Americans. "There will be moments like this when you're searching for the meaning of this loss," Allen continued. "There will be moments like this, when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back. Now is not the time for revenge, now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are."

Now this was an extraordinary plea to come from the US commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder. I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this? I rather fear it has. Because – however much I dislike generals – I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings – and might decide to go on a revenge spree. Hence he tried desperately – in a statement that was as shocking as it was revealing – to pre-empt exactly the massacre which took place last Sunday.

Yet it was totally wiped from the memory box by the "experts" when they had to tell us about these killings. No suggestion that General Allen had said these words was allowed into their stories, not a single reference – because, of course, this would have taken our staff sergeant out of the "deranged" bracket and given him a possible motive for his killings. As usual, the journos had got into bed with the military to create a madman rather than a murderous soldier. Poor chap. Off his head. Didn't know what he was doing. No wonder he was whisked out of Afghanistan at such speed.

We've all had our little massacres. There was My Lai, and our very own little My Lai, at a Malayan village called Batang Kali where the Scots Guards – involved in a conflict against ruthless communist insurgents – murdered 24 unarmed rubber workers in 1948. Of course, one can say that the French in Algeria were worse than the Americans in Afghanistan – one French artillery unit is said to have "disappeared" 2,000 Algerians in six months – but that is like saying that we are better than Saddam Hussein. True, but what a baseline for morality. And that's what it's about. Discipline. Morality. Courage. The courage not to kill in revenge. But when you are losing a war that you are pretending to win – I am, of course, talking about Afghanistan – I guess that's too much to hope. General Allen seems to have been wasting his time.

lakshmikanth · Post by **lakshmikanth** » 21 Mar 2012 03:47

^^^The above ties in very well with the lack of empathy and latent racism in the West.

I had written about this a few hours ago here: http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 0#p1258230

Here is an example of what is to come:
http://collateralmurder.com/

The above is nothing but a weaponized lynch mob, they "suspect" you have weapons, which in this case were camera/recording equipment, and before you know it you get to meet your 72. There were so many people "justifying" this as "ohh you dont know the whole story", i.e. showing 0 empathy towards the legitimate victims and 100% empathy towards "our boys"

Notice that all of these mass murderers are white, I believe (but dont have proof), that it is precisely because they have "othered" and dehumanized the Afghans/Vietnamese enough to do something they would never do to their fellow white man. I also suspect that a colored person (who has empathy towards all races) is unlikely to commit mass murder of this sort against Afghans/Vietnamese or even a white colonized country.

I am not sure what would happen if a black/colored guy went on a rampage, instead of a white guy.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 21 Mar 2012 10:02

TWQ

Some af-pak articles

http://www.twq.com/currentissue/index.cfm#2

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 21 Mar 2012 11:00

Folks, looking through my archives I found a post that I had made on 1st November 2001, weeks after 9-11 and over 10 years ago

The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the International Terrorist Network
(ITN) currently fielding Bin Laden has got America by the balls in much the same way that
Pakistan had India by the balls. I would suggest use of the term ITN or something similar,
because Bin Laden is not the beginning or end of terrorism.

No matter which way the US turns it faces making choices that contradict its own policies.

In a way, Bin Laden and the ITN have already won. America admits that 911 has changed
things forever. The American "way of life" has been touched and modified in a way that was
thought inconceivable. Americans will have to go through new inconveniences and new
hurdles to avoid the terror of 911. The message that the Terrorist Network is sending is
clear. America has impinged on the way of life of thousands of people in various parts of the
world and has been immune to any change in its own way of life.

Until now.

The US faces stark choices. Either introduce hold-ups and inconveniences in America or face
more terror.

Look at all the other contradictions that Bin Laden and the ITN have placed for the US to
face:

To fight terrorism, America has to ally with nations that harbour terrorists and make
those nations stronger.

America has to look for support and coalition partners in former "foes" - Russia and Iran

America has to destroy a nation and government that helped it win the cold war
-Afghanistan.

America has to eat its own words about non-proliferation while it supports and arms
the latest "illegal" entrant to the nuclear weapons club.

America has to forsake or exclude nations that are willing to ally with them, making its
own coalition weaker.

America has to take the support of Islamic nations to fight terrorism, but in fighting
terrorism, America will have to kill Muslims and explain to the Muslim world that it is
killing terrorists and not Muslims, to hold on to its coalition. And these dead Muslims will
have innocent families who will retain anger at America for another 50 years making
some US President 50 years from now wonder why people are angry with his nation.

America, a nation that developed the best longrange weapons to avoid casualities, will
now have to put troops on the ground - many of the surveillance and stealth weapons
have been rendered redundant.

America has to face the prospect of enduring military casualties for an indefinite time
span so that it can avoid more deaths at home

Even now I think it is possible to pick out US responses that are almost guaranteed to fail or
backfire eventually. It is one thing to swear "We will prevail" and show resolve. But isn't that
exactly what the terrorists are doing, saying "We will prevail" and showing resolve?

Can America now "change forever" so that it can retain what it had before it changed? That
sounds like the mother of all oxymorons.

Can it win at all?

I post this as a new thread.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 23 Mar 2012 15:57

Maiden trip: Vladimir Putin to visit Pakistan in Sept

By Kamran Yousaf
Published: March 6, 2012

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accepted Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s invitation to visit Pakistan in September. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: It was -8 degrees Celsius in Moscow on Tuesday but a telephone call from Islamabad to the Kremlin brought about some warmth in the otherwise frosty Pakistan-Russia relationship.

The newly-elected Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accepted an invitation extended by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to travel to Islamabad in September this year, said an official announcement. This will be the first-ever trip to Islamabad by any Russian head of state.

According to the statement, Premier Gilani telephoned Putin to congratulate him on his success in the presidential elections, and formally invited him to an official trip to Pakistan.

The dates of the visit will be decided by the two foreign ministers soon, the statement added.

Quadrilateral meetings

Apart from holding bilateral talks with the country’s leadership, the Russian leader will also attend a quadrilateral summit scheduled for later this year, a senior foreign ministry official told The Express Tribune.

The summit would be attended by leaders of Pakistan, Russia, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and focus on regional issues with particular emphasis on the Afghan endgame, the official added.

The last such meeting was held in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in 2011 where the four nations urged the US-led Nato forces to step up the training of local security forces before pulling out of Afghanistan.

Russia, which suffered a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan in the 1980s, has voiced concerns on the future of the country once the US-led coalition withdraws its troops.

The concern was shared with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar who visited Moscow last month.

Official sources say that Russia has apprehensions that Afghanistan may slip into a civil war again due to lack of a clear roadmap for future political dispensation.

Changing ties

Meanwhile, the maiden visit by a Russian head of state to Pakistan reflects the recent improvement in bilateral relations between former cold-war rivals.

In May last year, President Asif Ali Zardari undertook a historic visit to Moscow, the first official trip by any head of state from Pakistan in 37 years.

The shift is purportedly part of Pakistan’s realignment in the region in the wake of its fragile ties with the US.

Pakistan is currently reevaluating its cooperation with the US based on recommendations furnished by an all-party bicameral parliamentary panel. The foreign policy review includes recommendations that Pakistan re-evaluate its relationship with Russia.

On its part, Russia, in an unprecedented move, denounced last year’s Nato cross border raid on Pakistani check posts and believed to have backed Islamabad’s move to shut down supplies for western forces stationed in Afghanistan.

We need to watch this closely

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 25 Mar 2012 16:27

Update on Qatar talks - total waste of time and absolutely nothing took place with the talks. State dept and Taliban met on Jan 31st. They agreed to meet on March 15th for "proper talks". But Qatar is struggling to arrange the meeting because both sides dontwant to talk.

Taliban represented by :Mohd Stanikzai (Personal Secretary to mulah O) and former Taliban ambassador to KSA Shahabuddin Delawar and Maulvi Qalamuddin (former taliban headof moral police 96 -01).

-------------------
Sarko is competing with his rivals to pull out early from AfPak. Sarko said 2013, then competitor said end of 2012. US is sweating! France paid 35k euros per hour of flight for antanovs to fly 12 armoured vehicles from Kabul to Abu Dhabi!! To top it off, French foreign min said only use transporters that have no links with arms smuggling!! Pull out will take several months - providing US cooperation as they control airspace.

They wont leave any sensitive equipment such as comms/NVGs as there is a "possiblity" of HK being overthrown. Some will be left behind to support ANA.

15 airbus will be used to take back 3900 soldiers. another 100more to take their eqiupment. Some will be taken to Dushanbe, Termez or Abu Dhabi then onwards Probably via sea to Toulon port and also overland through russia and baltics.