Pakistan told India yesterday it did not want war and would use force only if attacked — a move apparently aimed at reducing tensions amid reports indicating thousands of Pakistani troops were headed for their shared border.
“We don’t want to fight, we don’t want to have war, we don’t want to have aggression with our neighbors,” Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a televised speech.
Still, Gilani said the country’s military was “fully prepared” to respond to any Indian aggression.
Pakistan’s latest moves were seen as an indication that it will retaliate if India launches air or missile strikes against militant targets on Pakistani soil — rather than a signal that a fourth war between the two countries was imminent.
US officials watched with growing concern on Friday as reports suggested Pakistan was massing troops to the India border. Such a move raises double-barreled worries: A possible confrontation between two nuclear powers and a shift by the Pakistani military away from battling the Taliban along its western Afghan edge.
“We hope that both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
US military leaders have been urging both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint in the wake of the deadly Mumbai attacks that many believe were originated by Pakistan-based militants.
On Friday, US intelligence and military officials were still trying to determine if the reported troop movements were true, and, if so, what Pakistan’s intent may be. They cautioned that the reports may be exaggerated, aimed more at delivering a message than dispatching forces.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss intelligence matters.
US defense leaders have been worried about a new flare-up between Pakistan and India ever since the coordinated terror attacks in India’s financial capital last month that killed 164 people.
India has demanded that Pakistan arrest the perpetrators behind the Mumbai attacks. It says they are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group widely believed to have been created by Pakistani intelligence in the 1980s and used to fight Indian-rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Pakistan twice this month and as many as seven times in the past year. In recent meetings with senior Pakistani leaders he has urged restraint and encouraged both sides to find ways to work together.
One senior military official said on Friday that the US is monitoring the issue, but still could not confirm assertions from Pakistani intelligence officials that some 20,000 troops were on the move, heading to the Indian border.
A key concern for US officials is that some of those troops may have been stationed along the volatile Afghan border and were being diverted to the Indian side.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Mullen, who have both been in the region in recent weeks, have expressed the hope that Pakistan would stay focused on fighting militants in its mountainous northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Insurgents there have proved increasingly troublesome, launching attacks into Afghanistan, disrupting supply routes for the Afghan, US and coalition militaries, and providing training and hiding places for the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others. It also has long been suspected that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been hiding there.
Senior defense officials said the US is watching the situation very closely since officials would prefer that the Pakistanis remain focused on battling insurgents within their own country.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
CAUTION URGED: Xiaohongshu and Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — are tools the Chinese government uses for its ‘united front’ propaganda, the MAC said Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday urged people who use Chinese social media platforms to be cautious of being influenced by Beijing’s “united front” propaganda and undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty. Chiu made the remarks in response to queries about Chinese academic Zhang Weiwei (張維為) saying that as young Taiwanese are fond of interacting on Chinese app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, known as RedNote in English), “after unification with China, it would be easier to govern Taiwan than Hong Kong.” Zhang is professor of international relations at Shanghai’s Fudan University and director of its China Institute. When giving a speech at China’s Wuhan
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
RSS