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Pakistan offers to train Afghan security forces

01 February 2010 20:39 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Pakistan offered on Monday to train Afghanistanâ€™s security forces with the dual aim of helping to secure a friendly neighbour over its western border while also watching old rival India over its eastern border, APA reports quoting Euronews.
The United States and Afghanistanâ€™s other Western allies want Afghan forces to take over security responsibilities as a vital step towards the eventual withdrawal of foreign soldiers now battling an intensifying Taliban insurgency.
Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said Pakistan was offering to help train Afghanistanâ€™s security forces but he warned it would take years before they would be in a position to take over from foreign forces.
â€œIf we get more involved with the ANA (Afghan National Army) thereâ€™s more interaction and better understanding,â€ Kayani told reporters at his headquarters in Rawalpindi.
â€œWe have opened all doors â€¦ Itâ€™s a win-win for Afghanistan, the United States, ISAF and Pakistan,â€ he said, referring to NATOâ€™s International Security Assistance Force.
He said he believed it would take at least four years to achieve a target of a 140,000-strong Afghan force able to take over security responsibilities.
Afghanistan is not likely to jump at the Pakistani offer.
Pakistan is viewed with deep suspicion in Kabul because of its ties to the Taliban, who Pakistan backed through the 1990s.
Afghanistan says the Taliban still get help from Pakistan. Pakistan denies any official backing but, nevertheless, the Afghan Taliban draw much support from Pakistani supply networks.
Many Taliban leaders and their families are also believed to be in Pakistan.
â€œSTRATEGIC DEPTHâ€
While Afghanistan is wary of Pakistan, Islamabad is deeply suspicious of the close ties India has built with the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan sees the Afghan government as dominated by traditionally pro-Indian and anti-Pakistani ethnic Tajiks. Pakistan says India is supporting separatist rebels in its gas-rich Baluchistan province from Afghanistan.
For years, Pakistan saw Afghanistan in terms of â€œstrategic depth,â€ meaning, in the event of Indian forces rolling over its eastern border, Pakistani forces could withdraw over the western border into a friendly Afghanistan and fight back from there.
But Kayani said Pakistan just wanted a friendly Afghanistan.
â€œâ€˜Strategic depthâ€™ does not imply controlling Afghanistan,â€ he said. â€œIf Afghanistan is peaceful, stable and friendly we have our strategic depth because our western border is secure â€¦ Youâ€™re not looking both ways.â€
Kayani did not comment on the possibility of Pakistan using its links with the Afghan Taliban to push them towards peace talks. Pakistan has shown support for an invitation that Karzai issued last week for the Taliban to take part in a peace council.
But Kayani stressed the importance of public backing of anti-insurgent operations in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Referring to a U.S.-backed Afghan plan to lure lower-level Taliban out of the insurgency, Kayani said a vital factor was the public perception of who was going to prevail.
â€œThey sit on the crossroads, waiting to see who is winning and losing,â€ he said.