US has not interrupted civilian aid to Pakistan, says Victoria Nuland

US has not interrupted civilian aid to Pakistan, says Victoria Nuland

The spokesperson for the US Department of State, Victoria Nuland has stated that United States is dedicated to maintain a strong and mutually respectful relationship with the South Asian country and has not interrupted the civilian assistance.

She told that despite of the consequences of November 26 strikes on Pakistani border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, US has continued its civilian assistance to Pakistan.

“We consider bilateral US civilian assistance to be an important component of that relationship and believe it can help Pakistan become a more prosperous, stable, and democratic state, which serves the national interests of both the United States and Pakistan,”
said US Department of State.

“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” the spokesperson added.

The Nato strikes on the border post of Pakistan claimed lives of two dozen Pakistani soldiers and ignited the anger of Pakistani citizens. As a result, Pakistan blocked Nato supply routes and started a thorough review of the relationship with the US.

The US Department observed that since the course of Kerry Lugar Berman law in 2009, the United States has distributed $2.2 billion in civilian aid, which also includes almost $550 million in emergency civilian assistance.

“In FY 2011 specifically, we disbursed approximately $855 million (not including any emergency humanitarian assistance). Our non-humanitarian civilian assistance funds are spent in five priority sectors: energy, economic growth, stabilization of the border
regions, education, and health.

Notably, in 2011 the people of the United States supported the construction of 210 kilometres of road in Fata and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, funded the world’s largest Fulbright exchange program, and sponsored initiatives promoting private sector growth and civil
society development in Pakistan,” she added.

Previously, she proposed that Pakistan and US should work at a broad-based joint relationship. She further added that Pak-US relationship should work on a wide variety of issues including society, economy, development and security issues.

She emphasised that US would definitely communicate the idea of working together at a broader scale with Pakistan as they have a lot of work to do.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=10032

Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt on Jan 21 2012. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry