least, moral support and that's what i'm asking here in washington. thank you. [ applause ] >> i was going to ask you please join me in thanking the minister for incredibly insightful and fascinating presentation. but, thank you again. >> thank you. >> thank you for everybody. >> thank you for coming. [ applause ] >> thank you. president obama announced his pick to fill justice's seat on the supreme court thursday.

his choice, u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit chief judge mer rick garland. appointed under president bill clinton he's a graduate of harvard law. senator republicans have reaffirmed their decision to not hold hearings on the nomination until after the election. join the conversation on facebook or twitter. tell us if you think the senate should consider garland's nomination. mer ririck

. now pakistan's chief foreign advisor talk about his country's efforts to combat terrorism and bolster from the counsel on foreign relations in washington d.c. this is an hour. good afternoon. it's my great pleasure to welcome to the council for this morning's conversation and his remarks on pakistan, pakistan's neighborhood and pakistan in the united states. so i want to let you all know that this is a meeting on the record, so -- but nonetheless, please silence cell phones and

happy noise making gadgets. other than that, i just wanted to take a minute to introduce our speaker who needs very little introduction. most of us in this room seem to have some connection with pakistan, for most of us in this room have some knowledge or acquaintance with our speaker today. he has been a member of the pakistan foreign policy elite, as he is currently, but he's also done something quite unique. i mean, he's been an economist with very important positions and impact in the world of food and agriculture. and he's -- in addition to that -- been a vice chancellor

at the university that started up and really took off under his leadership, the beacon house national university, in which he was the vice chancellor. prior to that, he was pakistan's foreign minister from august '98 to october '99 and was elect today the pakistan senate in -- and was elected to pakistan senate in 1995 and remained there until 1999. the minister is here for conversations for the u.s. leadership for the strategic dialogue and we're pleased you can take time out for your important assignments here and come and speak to the council about u.s. pakistan and the region. thank you. >> well, thank you very much. it's always a pleasure to get experience to come to washington and also to the consulate and meet such a distinguished group of friends and observers in the

pakistan u.s. relations. i think since most of you are familiar, i'll gloss over them very briefly. i think historically pakistan and u.s. have been virtually on the same page starting with the first foreign assistance act of 1964 and whether it was initially the core years and -- and then against terrorism and in all of these, i think pakistan has been greatly on the u.s. side and we have had very good partnership and very good relationship. then, of course, the issue, when that came, that didn't guard us much beater involvement because the southern region created dangers for pakistan and so

jointly we obtained people to try and prevent russia from moving forward into pakistan and i think for 10 years throughout the '80s it was quite remarkable experience. we were defeated by people with small arms. they decelerated the collapse of the union in that face. but unfortunately when the russia left, everybody else and that, i think, was a big historical mistake. because if the people who had been fighting when there was no opportunity for reconstruction and alternative jobs, they started fighting each other and in my view 5% of what we spent after 9/11, it would be very different. with no jobs and no opportunities for reconstruction, then those people started fighting each other and created a vacuum.

they created the problem that we're already familiar with it. so after that, of course, came 9/11 and those are the people that we obtained and armed and pushed into our side and that created another existence threat to us, which i'll come to in a little later. but this whole period, our interaction between the pentagon and our defense establishment, between our foreign policy establishment and economic counterparts has been on the whole, very very positive. because u.s. has been pakistan last ending partner and defense cooperation as on the economy. so these opportunities in which we work together further intensified, that particular relationship. so in this context, the --

one of the key elements in the recent past has been what we call our strategic dialogue and the effort to carry the process the security issues into a deeper partnership, better economic cooperation as well as more trade and investment cooperation. so this strategic dialogue started actually in 2010. and three quick sessions were held in march, july, october in that year and interrupted in 2011 and '12 by series of unfortunate incidents, connected to osama bin laden and the dialogue could not take place at that time. so when our government came in june 2013, came to pakistan in two months in august and he suggested that we should now put

the relationship back on. so that was done and we had the fourth round in july -- in january 2014 and the fifth meeting in 2015 and now we had the sixth session yesterday, in which we have initially, now there are and each of these groups has a very important agenda, but there's energy and that is done very well and recently evolved a partnership, it's a very important dimension of the coming years because we all need clean and renewable energy. then there's a group on finance and economics and trade and that has made good progress on some of the things, although our trade has not improved for reasons b u.s. is still our largest trading partner. and then there's a group on counter terrorism and, while

extremism where we have cooperation on building capacity on security and law enforcement agencies in counter terrorism techniques and equipment. we have a group on nonproliferation and the latest subjects we have good intersection between our team and their team. each of these groups pakistanny co-chairperson and american co-chairperson and they, throughout the -- once a year they meet and strategic dialogue level, each present their report and we evaluate and say this progress has been made, impl implementation is okay and how do we move forward. we discussed legal issues, so i'll say very successful session we've identified very important things. the new group which is the part of this group handles

technology. i think the best export from pakistan to america is education. i think, basically, with education and the interaction between universities and -- so we are evolving a concept of what you call knowledge. the last thing people concentrate on physical, and connectivity. in our view it's a very significant concept in which the exchange of knowledge, expertise and technology, you spearhead progress, which is not possible. in fact, more and more economy is knowledge based economy, only sort of based technology. this is a very promising group and the proposals to increase the number of funding scholarships and we have more teachers and we have different

fees we hope to do that. these are some of the things which have happened. now, the key issues which are dominated our discussion and also up for today, as we look into the future of our u.s./pakistan relation. now, in looking at the future relation, the important is the change in pakistan's pool sis whi -- policies which provide the basis for cutting this process. these are areas in which our priorities coincide with u.s. priorities and the progress we made to provide opportunity for better communication. the most important is counter terrorism, we inherited this crisis on our borders after 9/11 and it came to us for a very large extent our travel is ungoverned and very long.

so when the terrorists and those groups which are fighting russians and many others, they came to our part. they, initially, were looking for safety, but gradually they started expanding to other parts. so by 2007 they had become a major threat to those areas and they -- the pakistanny taliban, joined hands with the people, come from there and some other groups also supporting them. so then the frequency of suicide attacks and bomb blasting started increasing from 2004 onward. and i think by last count, total casualties in these 12 years have been about 60,000, including 10,000 security personnel and economic blasts more than 100 billion. so i think when we came in, and of course with this kind of security and i mentioned the

effective, it effected trade relations and people could not come to pakistan, so this was priority number one, how to deal with this issue. so i think in the last two-and-a-half years, we have received success in this, we started in september 2013, when we started the operation because the soundings had become a hub of all the people who had escaped from the triebal networks. so the problem was beyond the capacity of the police, so we had a semimilitary establishment, which is sort of the kind of local force, which is officered by the army and specialized force. so they would go empower to investigate to a special -- and they in about 12 months time managed to abtan about 12,000 of

these extremist and terrorist group, which is very important that you'll see later on. 9 months later in june 2014 we started the operations -- major operation in the agencies, the largest of our travel agencies and after intersection in the first six agencies, everybody has converged into the first, creating the networks of suicide training centers communication networks, command and control system. so it had become a very major hub. so '15, june last 2014, this operation started in the last 18, is the months they've managed to clear it out about almost 90/95% of the agency and the infrastructure of the networks have been destroyed. that's been a very important

factor in this whole process. then came, of course, the december 2014 attack in the school, 140 children were killed and that was a very, in a way, game changer because -- it unified the nation against it. before that we didn't have total political consensus because there was a group against it for one reason or another. after that incident all the political parties came together and they joined hands and said, enough is enough. no distinction between good and bad terrorist, they're all bad for us and we must move against them, so that led the basis for what is called a national action program. it was adopted within about two weeks by all the political parties both inside the parliament and outside, including many of the religious parties. this is the platform which is the implementation and the first part, of course, is after the

operations are done, and it's based operation system. this is very interesting concept, because as i mentioned, police people know everywhere who entered what place, but they don't have capacity to take them on. so when they're combining with the force and then the army -- then the operation becomes more effective. so this -- that's based operation has been going on around all the cities of the country for the last 13 months and they're reprehended almost 25,000 of these terroristic groups, some killed, some arrested. and so this has -- as a result of these two things, the operations of theirs and the intelligence based operation, the terrorist attacks in last year 2015 were less than half of what they were in 2014. so this drastic has been a very welcome development and security

environment and many of the city has improved and invest stores are coming back so generally, it has been -- and it's work in press. it's not competing, but i think the next 12-18 months we think the incidents will come down drastically. the next phases of the next election plan is -- attacking of the system of the funding sources. we had about 7, 8, housing for people to brainwashed. all of them so now they've been notified or notified. and we have now have funding control mechanism, federal investigation agency has financi financial mon storing network which will monitor. so this will block off many of

the places where these people either get training or get motivation. and then, of course, we have, along with this effort, new organization called lekcta, which is the nerve center of intelligence coordination as well different operations which will become the main mechanism as you go along. the combination of intelligence for particular work has to be combined, if you want to achieve results. . hold counter -- and particular the narrative sf very powerful and catchy for the young people. it requires a very different approach who is identifying these messages and identifying the correct response to this.

so this is work and we are cooperating with some other countries also to the islamic countries to find it, because this is modern living for many countries, not only pakistan. so i think this is one area in which they're taking decisive step not particularly in our own region, the incident of intelligence is increasing. in pakistan, we're almost on the point where we can say we're turning the corner. and hopefully in the next year or two, we'll be one of the outstanding example of a country that was able to control terrorism within its borders. the second area we have this convergence and where we have made good progress the strengthening of the democratic

process. . they have suffered from -- that has been the major problem. in 2006 the main political parties, pakistan people signed. thigh allow the armed forces to take. they step in and try to do something, and their position would invite the army to place in all the country and when they come, they don't leave. they don't average it. they just find and so therefore it is something that was a very welcomed development. and thank god that that particular recommended that it had been fulfilled after the 2008 election and democratic government had come, it does not -- performing in terms very well, but our leader at that time said that democracy is better than no democracy.

let the people decide. so we had first transition in 2013. one democratic government transferred to another and but unfortunately a year later there was a check to the democracy again when one of our political parties with the help of another party, started a four-month education in the capitol to bring down the government. that's the time in the test of this democracy came. and all the opposition parties, all the parties except these two parties came to the parliament, for two weeks they defended the democratic processes and did not allow this to be the subject. and i think the instability that was looming at that time disappeared. so that in a way showed that the people institutions and tradition is very strong. it's not just political

election. we have the other important prereck quiz sit in place. if some of you were to call. it was a very big moment to restore the we should have dislodged and then there was laborization of the media, so we're ready free and vibrant media, at the moment, which is strongly monitoring violation of human rights. kor russian, et cetera. et cetera. thirdly, of course, we have a strong and vibrant so different pillars that we needed to get into place. nondramatic, but the way they're developing we can say that democracy is taking roots in pakistan which is very important because all our problems in the past came it was excellent for the economy. they're ruling their own

affairs. west pakistan after that. it looked very sort of elegant on the surface, but liberation, movements, they all started under the kurdish ship. in the democracy. every unit -- subunits gs also, so that's why they feel involved in the break of the moment in that sense, i think democracy is the guarantee of distinct of the federation, so i think has now taken roots. the third area i think we have this convergence and our ground area has improved is policy of peaceful neighborhood. since our prime minister, you can't achieve economic progress if you have trouble with arguing neighbors. so the policy is to start, we must improve our relationship with the pakistan, with india,

iran, china and all our neighborhoods that's the only way we can have true connectivity and various kind of linkages have better economic process. so with -- it was a particularly task because there was a perception that whatever dared achieve after 9/11 was by the taliban and they will succeed because pakistan is supporting. as august 2013 within a few months of our coming into government, we ruled the situation. we reached a unanimous conclusion taliban coming back is not in our interest, because all the people that i mentioned earlier they were becoming even stronger. so ideologically they're an exodus. this was conveyed -- conveyed at that time to and later own russia and that started the process of improving our

relationship. there's still some people who suspect that it's not across the board and we still have people who the taliban. but i think this perception needs to be corrected because the way we have carried on our process in the last two years, the starting point of that is very clear, that it comes to pakistan, it will not become peaceful. therefore stability and peace is as important for us as it is for them. that requires it should be a political consensus between taliban and not the -- now, it has gone to different phases, this process, officially, when they came in 29, september, 2014, there was very very strong feeling of achieving the right relationship when he came in the 14th of november that year two months after he took over and we

had a very good -- how to start the reconciliation process. but broke out and nobody expected after it, that it would not pick up, but unfortunately the start of the talks was delayed and therefore the insurgency became much stronger than the expected and that created a sort of perception that it was. it was the ground situation after i left going to try their -- what our opportunity to to help. i must say that the security forces performance has been better than our expectations and they're not lost any big territory yet in pakistan. it can lose any couple of places, minor games, the short run, but then they'll recaptured and so far they've held the

ground, but -- so everybody is now convinced that taliban can't take it back, despite all of the difficulties they had in their ranks. but the ability of these people to continue insurgency for five years, 10 years, 15 -- 15 years is undiminished without some kind of reconciliation, insurgency can't stop. so that is -- that is why we persuaded them some kind of effort should be made. we did succeed in committing the first taliban meeting on the 7th of july last year, which was quite a card deal meeting. it was no preconditioning it was it was the first time, previously they were not recognizing them and they discussed am nesty and business exchange and things of that kind and agreed to meet again on

31st, july, to have a more intense discussion. but unfortunately two days before the meeting, the death having died two years ago was announced. and that delayed the whole process, they said who are they meeting, we still don't know why it was necessary to announce that or who did it to sabotage the talks. if it was done a week later, the talks would have taken place and the process would have continued. misgivings and talks could not resume. finally on the ninth of december last year, there were intense discussions between pakistan, china, and united states and we agreed to resume the dialogue process and under framework for

country framework coordination group. so that group has met four times in the last two-and-a-half months, first on the 11th, i think, of january and 18th of february and 16th february and 23rd february. and they've prepared, which lays down hard. so now we hope in the coming days 10, 15 days the first such meeting could take place between the taliban and the government. and it is not going to be very easy smooth process, but if two sectors operate successfully, one the ground situation remains stable and they don't capture more territory and at the same time they see things on the table, then, obviously, the chances are very good. our hope is that once talk

begins, so this is an area in which pakistan and u.s. cooperating very closely to try to promote dialogue and try to achieve the desires for us. so these sort of -- and, of course, in the policy of peaceful liberty, we have reached out to india and prime minister and we are anxiously waiting for the dialogue to be resumed. it was intercepted by two foreign processes meeting. now we're taking action on this. and police report has been and the investigation is about to go to india to collect additional evidence. the leaders have been apprehended and protective custody as the facilities seize, so now i think if we get more evidence, the process would start and it's prompt and as

active response as we can get. so once we begin the dialogue, i'm sure, we'll be able to at least deal with some issues even we can't solve all the issues in dispute. our main purpose that the line of control should have been peaceful, normal relationships should start, so that prepares the ground floor for dealing with more issues. china, of course, as some of you are aware, we have deepened the relationship and major pakistanny program costing a total of $46 billion which includes several parts projects. they'll go for immentation, this will connect us not just to china but also to central issue. finally, i think in this process because of the decision, the economy has started improving.

>> in our case, of course, we start taking action against the terrorist group one by one --

but in this particular case it's been destroyed. but some scheduled groups and remnants may still be around, but the bulk of the capacity of these groups is identified. so if we -- so this issue can be addresses to the extent possible, we're still taking action. the other concern, of course, is concerning our nuclear weapons