While a section of Pakistani media has termed the visit of Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Pakistan as an effort to revive the complex relations between the two countries, the US official further put Pakistan into trouble when he blamed the latter's intelligence agency Inter Services Intelligence for contacts with the Haqqani Network.
Pakistan believes that nuclear weapons are its "crown jewels" and a deterrent against India, a top US military official has said, even as he expressed deep concern over the safety of the nukes in the country. "These (nuclear weapons) are their crown jewels," Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
Four-star General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is expected to succeed chairman Admiral Mike Mullen as the top military man in Pentagon next year, has admitted that the terrorist safe havens that exist in Pakistan are a major strategic vulnerability in achieving success in Afghanistan against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"I also believe India plays an important role here (in Afghanistan)," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff told media persons at the Washington Foreign Press Centre, in response to question on role of regional countries in Afghanistan.
The United States on Friday said China's aggressive posturing over territorial claims in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions was a matter of concern that America shared with India.
Voicing concern over the misuse of United States' military aid by Pakistan, India on Friday asked America to set up a "monitoring mechanism" as a remedial measure, but got no clear assurance in this regard.
India conveyed its serious concerns over the US military aid to Pakistan being misused against it and asked America to establish a "monitoring mechanism" to ensure that this does not happen on Friday.
The US-Pak military ties are going through a 'very difficult time,' a top Pentagon official has conceded, but Washington is nowhere close to severing its ties with its longstanding ally.
In a pessimistic assessment of the Afghan war, a top US military official said on Wednesday that after years of neglect, America is basically "starting over" its battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, whose alliance is now stronger than ever.
The Taliban against whom US-led forces are fighting in Afghanistan grew "more effective" in the last three years because they had "safe haven" in the tribal areas of Pakistan to "rest" and "train" before returning to fight, US' top military commander has said.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
America's top military official, on a second visit to Islamabad since the Mumbai terror attacks, has persuaded the country to do more to address India's concerns on terrorists operating from its soil in order to defuse tensions between the two nations.
Talking to media-persons on his special aircraft en route to New Delhi, United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, while praising India for showing restraint after the ghastly 26/11 attacks, said extremists may try to repeat the incident that left 166 dead and over 300 injured. "I've worried a great deal about a repeat attack, of something like that," The Dawn newspaper quoted Mullen as saying
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, on Friday said that there can be no solution to the conflict in Afghanistan without Pakistan.
Noting that Americans are pretty impatient, he said: "It's going to take a patience to return that relationship to the strong one that used to be there with a country that is really critical and vital in that part of the world and has its own challenges, the extremist and terrorist challenges... It's a very serious problem."
A top United States military commander has warned that it would be "dangerous" to abandon Pakistan now as he feared this would lead to instability in the region witnessed in the 1990s. Admitting that US-Pakistan relations were going through "pretty rough times", Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I think the worst thing we could do would be cut them off," BBC reported. Mullen feared it would be a repeat of the instability in the 1990s.
Welcoming India's decision to reduce troops from Jammu and Kashmir, a top US military official said on Tuesday that de-tensioning of that border was absolutely critical to the long-term stability of the region.
Acknowledging that India is a big player in the region, a top US military leader has said that the relationship between India and Pakistan is critical for the stability in the region.
Al Qaeda remains "very capable" and focused on attacking the United States, a top American military official said on Sunday, adding the situation in Afghanistan is "serious" and "deteriorating" as the militants have found a "safe haven in Pakistan."
In his first briefing for the new year on the United States National Security Strategy Update, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, while replying to a query, blurted out that Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism in the world.
"As the ISI tries to rein in those militant proxies that have slipped from Islamabad's grasp, it will likely try to regain their support by redirecting their attention away from Pakistan and toward India, an enemy on which both Islamabad and the militants can agree. As a result, it is likely India will come under attack again," Stratfor warned.
The US said that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which so far had focused primarily on India, is having global aspirations and has spread its tentacles beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan, as manifested by the David Headley case. "Generally, LeT was east focused on India. They're now in the west. Actually, they're not just in the west, focused on Pakistan. There are LeT elements focused on Afghanistan," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said.
Acknowledging that trust deficit existed between the United States and Pakistan, America's top military general on Monday said it would take a long time for both countries to bridge that gap.
Welcoming President Barack Obama's new Afghan policy, the top US military commander said the decision to start withdrawing of troops from the war-torn country in 18 months is not an exit, but it is a strategy of transfer and transition.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated on Tuesday that the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons is not under any threat in spite of the current political crisis in that country. Mullen added that President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency didn't have any significant impact on the US-led global war on terror in Afghanistan.
Those who plotted the deadly attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, are still alive and planning to carry out more terror strikes, a top United States military general has said.
Voicing his frustration over the double game played by the Inter-Services Intelligence in the war against terror after 9/11, a former central intelligence agency chief has said that "duplicitous" is a gentler way to describe the notorious Pakistani spy agency, which has close links with terror groups.
China on Tuesday warned the United States that it will pay a 'heavy price' for its attempts to show support to Taiwan's independence as a delegation of ex-American defence officials dispatched by President Joe Biden landed in Taipei amid apprehensions that Beijing may attempt action against the self-ruled island akin to Russia's military assault in Ukraine.
'India's real concern is that cash-strapped Pakistan is keeping its military hardware well oiled on American money,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'Pakistanis are very clever in manipulating us,' former Bush administration official tells US lawmakers.
On Tuesday, Pompeo and Esper will hold the 2+2 talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, covering the entire expanse of defence and security ties as well as key regional and global issues.
'The clique that runs that country is treating us like suckers. We are very foolish, giving people money who involve themselves in activity that's harmful to America.' 'When you look at the cold hard facts, Pakistan is not an ally to the United States. They have facilitated, they have encouraged, they have been a protector of enemies.'
China is now the most significant strategic concern in Washington, as in most of the world's capitals, especially the democracies. Today, strategic autonomy has acquired a sharper definition: To ward off the Chinese challenge to India's territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional stature, observes Shekhar Gupta.
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