Australia offered to help train more Pakistani military officers Wednesday and committed 12 million dollars (nine million US) to humanitarian aid efforts in the country's troubled north-west. The announcements came as General Tariq Majid, the chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, visited Canberra to update officials on the fight against Taliban militants in the Swat valley.
Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said Pakistan was facing complex challenges maintaining security and that success fighting the Taliban on its own soil was critical to regional and global security. Fitzgibbon said Australia would lift the number of places for Pakistani officers in its military training programmes from 10 to 70 next year.
"We appreciate that the Pakistan military has significant expertise in confronting the extremist and terrorist threat," he said. "Our increased engagement is focused on providing training to assist Pakistan in this task." He said the enhanced military training programmed would begin later this year, when six Pakistani officers will attend a counter-insurgency course in Australia.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith also announced 12 million dollars in aid, saying more than a million people had been displaced in recent fighting. He said the money would go the United Nations, Red Cross and other aid agencies providing services to refugee camps.
Pakistan's military is locked in a fierce battle with the Taliban in the north-west, with recent fighting most intense in the Swat valley, amid fears the extremists could threaten the sovereignty of the nuclear-armed nation. Australia has about 1,100 troops deployed fighting the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
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