Pakistan wants more military ties with Iran

Islamabad, April 27: Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf called for stronger ties with Iran "in all fields" and said there was good scope for more military cooperation between the two neighbours.

A Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement also quoted him as telling a visiting senior Iranian official the two countries must cooperate to help end the prolonged civil war in their common neighbour Afghanistan, where the two countries recognise rival administrations.

Differences over Afghanistan and violence between rival Muslim militants in Pakistan had in recent years soured traditionally close ties between Tehran and Islamabad. Musharraf, who holds the title of Chief Executive, told the Iranian President's national security adviser and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Hassan Rouhani, that Pakistan "Sincerely desired to further strengthen these ties with Iran in all fields," the Pakistani statement said.

"The Chief Executive also underscored the need for greater economic cooperation between Pakistan and Iran and observed that the volume of (bilateral) trade ... was far below its potential and needed to be substantially increased," it said.

"Similarly, there was good scope for increasing the cooperation in the field of defence," he was quoted as saying. The statement gave no details about possible defence cooperation, which is now restricted to training facilities for Iranian officers in Pakistani institutions.

Pakistan is one of only three countries to recognise the radical Islamic Taliban movement's Government in Afghanistan, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran recognises Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was driven from Kabul in 1996 but fights on from the North, as the Afghan ruler. Musharraf said Pakistan and Iran "Need to cooperate to bring durable peace to Afghanistan", the Pakistani statement said.

Eyebrows were raised in Pakistan by recent top-level visits between Iran and India, Pakistan's arch-rival whose Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was in Tehran earlier this month. But the Pakistani statement quoted Rouhani telling Musharraf relations between their countries were "deep-rooted and would not be affected by Iran's relations with any other country."

On Wednesday, Rouhani and Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider agreed to expand cooperation to halt cross-border smuggling, drug-trafficking and the movement of criminals, a Pakistani statement on their meeting said.

The two men "Agreed on evolving joint strategies for tightening border vigilance and exchanging information about the activities of drug-smugglers operating along the Pakistan-Iran border", it said. The countries are on the route used to smuggle narcotics such as heroin to the West from the region, particularly Afghanistan. Pakistan also complains that cheap Iranian petrol is being smuggled into its southwestern province of Baluchistan. (Reuters)