Admiral Mike Mullen: Pakistan and US reach to an understanding on conducting operations in North Waziristan; CIA refuses to cut down the drone attacks even though UN opposes it; Pakistan and NATO express willingness to promote non military ties;
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    • An understanding was reached between Pakistan and US on conducting operations in North Waziristan according to US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Mullen was addressing the press in Washington on May 30 wherein he refused to divulge the details on the nature and timing of the operations.1 In addition to this, the CIA refused to cut down the drone attacks inside Pakistan even though UN opposed it on humanitarian grounds. According to US officials, drone attacks have proved an “effective tool” in targeting militants in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and therefore it is not feasible to stop them.2

    Meanwhile, Pakistan and NATO expressed willingness to promote non military ties and work on strengthening future relations between the two. This was stated by Prime Minister Gilani after meeting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on June 4.3 Making a reference to India’s Cold Start doctrine on the same occasion, Gilani pressed NATO to take interest in the south Asian security affairs.4

    In other developments, the recovery of Pakistan’s economy was termed as ‘fragile’ by the Finance Advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr Hafeez Shaikh, soon after the Economic Survey 2009-10 was launched in Islamabad on June 4.5 Meanwhile, the allocation for defence expenditure in the budget was increased by 28.9 per cent or Rs 99.26 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The figure for this years defence spending stands at Rs 442.173 billion against Rs 342.913 billion in the previous year.6

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