Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi on Monday said that Pakistan wanted a good relationship with the US, based on mutual respect.
“Security assistance is not our primary consideration. We want good relations with or without security assistance. We have enough resources in Pakistan. We can work without US assistance,” the naval chief said while speaking to the media in Washington.
The naval chief, who is in United States to attend an international symposium, continued: “Though the decision by US to suspend security assistance to Pakistan was not a favourable one, it was not a life or death situation.”
Abbasi went on to say that India’s sea-based nuclear weapon initiative had compelled Pakistan to take steps for maintaining strategic balance in the region.
While Abbasi admitted that Pakistan had tested the Babur-III missiles to meet the Indian challenge, he dismissed a journalist’s implication that Pakistan had developed this missile with China’s assistance.
“It’s an indigenous programme. I will leave at that,” he said.
Abbasi also rejected the myth that Pakistan was seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is a separate, sovereign country and we respect it as that. Whatever strategic depth we have is our own,” he said.
Replying to a question, he also welcomed US-Taliban talks in Qatar. “This is a good beginning that the US is engaged with the Taliban.”
He said the best hope for peace in Afghanistan was the quadrilateral talks that Pakistan had arranged in Murree in 2016. He rejected the suggestion that Pakistan was financing the Afghan Taliban.
Published in Daily Times, September 19th 2018.
