Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday while progress has been made attacking terrorist organisations both regionally and globally, "much work remains to be done."
Delivering opening remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Powell praised high professionalism of the US diplomats and their sense of commitment, adding the attainments of the past year have been many- referring to Libya, Sudan, Pakistan-India, in particular.
With regard to the matter of leakage of nuclear know-how by Dr A.Q. Khan, he said that he was appreciative of the action that President Pervez Musharraf has taken "in response to his recognition of the danger presented by this (Khan) network."
"Suddenly, you find a Libya that is willing to give up its weapons of mass destruction. Suddenly, you find a Sudan that is closer to peace than it's ever been in 20 years."
He said: "Suddenly, you go from a situation where India and Pakistan were almost at war with each other 18 months ago and we were worried about nuclear conflagration on the subcontinent, to a point now where they are Co-operating with each other and moving forward, and even starting to inch up on the difficult issue of Kashmir. And we find that Pakistan feels sufficiently confident in their position."
"And with our help and pressure, we're dealing with the A.Q Khan situation and we're going to get that network all ripped up."
Secretary Powell referred to President Bush's speech of February 11 at the National Defence University- in which, he outlined a new approach from the Administration to this growing danger of proliferation.
"He described how we worked for years to uncover the A.Q Khan network. We never ignored it. We knew all about it. But we had to quietly go about identifying all elements of this network and then dealing with it. And by learning more through our efforts with Libya about the network.
He said the United States was able "to take the case to President Musharraf and let him know of the danger that lurked inside of Pakistan, a danger to Pakistan, a danger to the rest of the world."
PHONE CALLS: Powell said US President spoke to President Musharraf on a number of occasions. "I spoke to President Musharraf about this on a number of occasions. My staff did a quick check last (Wednesday) night and President Musharraf and I have had 62 phone calls over the last two plus years, many of which dealt with these kinds of issues.
"And I'm very pleased with the action that President Musharraf has taken in response to his recognition of the danger presented by this network, as well as the encouragement we have given him to deal with this danger."
Powell also made a mention of the Moscow Treaty, Proliferation Security Initiative.
He said the US President's 2005 International Affairs budget request for the Department of State, USAID and other foreign affairs agencies totals $31.5 billion, and it is broken down as follows: foreign operations, $21 billion; State operations, $8.4 billion; PL 480 food aid, $1.2 billion; international broadcasting, $569 million - and the US Institute for Peace, $22 million.
TOP PRIORITY: He said: "The President's top foreign policy priority is winning the war on terrorism."
As part of the war on terrorism, President Bush established a clear policy to work with other nations to meet the challenges of defeating terror networks with global reach.
This commitment extends to the front line states, who have joined us in the war on terrorism and to those nations that are key to successful transition to democracy in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Our assistance enables countries co-operating closely with the United States to prevent future attacks, to improve counter-terrorism capabilities and to tighten border controls."
"The 2005 budget provides for more than $5.7 billion for assistance to countries around the world that have joined us in this effort, including Turkey, Jordan, Afghanistan, of course, Colombia, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
"While progress has been made attacking terrorist organisations, both globally and regionally, much work remains to be done. And the President's budget strengthens our financial commitment to our coalition partners to get this work finished.
"One aspect of the war on terrorism is going after weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation."
Comments
Comments are closed.