Pak to seek drone technology at upcoming strategic dialogue with US

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani deliberated on the forthcoming Pak-US strategic dialogue in a meeting at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Briefing the media, the President’s Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the government wanted to pursue multi-faceted comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, and address issues such as drone technology, reimbursement of Coalition Support Fund arrears and the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones legislation during the dialogue, The News reported.

He said the challenges being faced by the two countries vis-’-vis the security situation would also be discussed at the strategic talks, which is scheduled to be held in Washington later this month, to further promote intelligence sharing mechanism and capacity enhancement of the security forces.

The president has all along maintained that Pakistan had suffered a colossal loss, both in human and material due to the ongoing fight against militancy and the recent devastating floods, which further added to the economic woes, Babar said.

He pointed out that the situation called for support from the international community, especially the US, to help and advocate Pakistan’s case for greater access to its products in the international markets.

He also expressed hope that discussions during the forthcoming dialogue would be productive, and help carry forward the progress made so far in the mutually agreed areas of cooperation.

It may be recalled that various areas of mutual cooperation, including security, defence, socio-economic projects, enhancement of power generation capacity and infrastructure, were thoroughly deliberated during the meetings in the last round of the dialogue held at Islamabad.

The meeting was also attended by Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Finance Secretary Salman Siddique. (ANI)