'Pakistan, Afghanistan united in terror fight'
Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari (R) together with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai address a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad yesterday. Zardari, who took office as President and Karzai said they would stand together in the fight against terrorism.Photo: AFP
Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai said here yesterday they would stand together in the fight against terrorism.
"It is an issue of importance to both countries," Karzai told a joint press conference shortly after Zardari was sworn in as Pakistan's new leader.
"It is about fighting this menace in the right manner," he added, saying that he and Zardari were agreed on how the problem should be tackled.
"I find in President Zardari a good will and vision not only for relations between the two countries but for the region, that I have seen for the first time in this region," Karzai said.
Relations between the neighbours were strained under Karzai and Zardari's predecessor Pervez Musharraf, with the Afghan leader accusing Islamabad of not doing enough to curb cross-border militancy.
"Pakistan intends to work with you, along with you," Zardari told the Afghan president.
"We are bigger than the problems are," he added.
Earlier Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Monday the battle against insurgents in his country must be taken to its "breeding ground" in neighbouring Pakistan.
Spanta, speaking in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said "the geographical approach" to stamping out unrest in his country must be broadened.
"The ideological and military training camps (for extremists active in Afghanistan) are in the mountains of Pakistan," he told reporters, calling the region a "breeding ground for terrorists".
"We need to stop that. We must not give them the chance to use terror as an instrument of foreign policy."
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