The United States had forged a new partnership with Pakistan, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said this, adding that without co-operation of Pakistan waging war on terrorism it would not been possible.
In his remarks to the US Global Leadership Campaign, Powell said, "And I called President Musharraf two days after 9/11 and he agreed that it was time for him to make a strategic choice and he made that choice."
"And, three years later now we are working in close partnership with President Musharraf, as we help him to move his country forward at a pace that the Pakistani people can absorb."
He said: "American leadership is also yielding unprecedented co-operation in South Asia. We have transformed our relationship with India and we have forged a new partnership with Pakistan."
Secretary PowelI said: "United States no longer view India and China in the way they had been viewed for so many years. Each of them are now important friends and partners with us, and because of that relationship, we can help them as they deal with the outstanding difficulties that they have had for so many years.
ME PEACE PROCESS: "We work with our quartet partners, the Russian Federation, the United Nations and the European Union to be ready to do what we can to move the Middle East peace process along so we can achieve the goals of the roadmap, which were laid out by the President in June of 2002.
A Palestinian state that is free and at peace with the state of Israel remains our goal and we will do everything we can to achieve that goal," he said.
Secretary Powell said the US has worked hard with its friends in Asia to put together a six-party arrangement to deal with the challenge of nuclear weapons in North Korea.
"We think they have, perhaps, one or two. We're not sure if they have developed or built any more. Why should it be solely a US problem? Why isn't it a problem for Japan and for Russia, and for China and South Korea? They' re North Korea' s neighbours.
AFGHANISTAN: "We have demonstrated that so vividly over the past week in Afghanistan. It was three years ago that I went to Afghanistan for the first time shortly after we got rid of the Taleban, and it was a country that was totally broken, had one phone for the whole new interim government - one phone - and the money was worthless, being carried around in wheelbarrows to buy a cup of a coffee."
And now, three years later, he said, the currency is reasonably stable, the economy is picking up, construction is taking place.
They have been through a political process that led to a national election last Sunday, the first in that nation' s history, all those hundreds of years of recorded history, finally, free, open election, he added.
"Was it perfect? No Show me any county in the United States that has had a completely perfect election and then you can make a judgement about how free and fair and open the Afghan election was. There were a little irregularity and they'll be worked out between the UN, the United States and the Afghan government.
"But what could not be denied, not withstanding all of the concerns about whether it could actually happen, would Muslims come out and vote? Is this really what they wanted? Was this really the right way to go about it? You saw the pictures on Sunday, on television, and in your newspapers, but what you saw couldn't be denied.
He said, people came out at 3 o'clock in the morning to line up.
"They stood in line all day long. They would not be denied. Women in burqas, totally covered up, except for their hand that came out holding a ballot, so they could put it in the ballot box, so that these millions of people could decide how they will be led in the future."
He described it as "a tremendous tribute to the human spirit," the voting by tens of thousands in refugee camps still in Pakistan.
Three million of those refugees from the camps in Pakistan and Iran had walked back into the country over the last several years in order to rebuild in hope of a better life ahead - tremendous tribute.
The people do want to decide who their leaders will be, he said, adding they don't want terrorists in their country.
"They don't want insurgencies in their country, and I'm confident that same pattern can be repeated in Iraq."
About Iraq, he said it was very challenging to all of us now.
"It is a difficult mission that we have to accomplish, but the goal is the same, to give the Iraqi people the same choice that we have, the same choice that the Afghan people now have. It's an insurgency that must be defeated because who is behind this insurgency? Old regime elements, who want to do what?."
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