U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Pakistan: Followup on the Strategic Partnership Meeting

Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs
Remarks to the Press
Islamabad, Pakistan
October 20, 2008

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QUESTION: Yeah, thank you. My question is that you talked about the security problem, then the economic problem here. What has been the concrete commitment from the Friends of Pakistan in terms of their assessment to bail out this country from the economic crisis? And secondly, do you think the objectives and goals of making attacks inside Pakistan, they are met successfully?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER: That's two questions. I'll pick the one I want to answer. (Laughter.)

The Friends of Pakistan group -- how can I say it? It's a group that's a strategic group. It's a way of combining the Pakistani Government efforts and the Western -- not Western -- and the Friends efforts: government like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, China, the United Kingdom. And you saw, you know, in New York there were at least a dozen countries there and we're always hearing from more who would like to be part of this.

So the goal is not…I mean, it's not to throw money on the table. The goal is to put money where it belongs to support really concrete and positive goals. So it's going to be a systematic process. It's going to be a strategic process that looks at problems, looks at what the Pakistani Government is doing, looks at their approach and what effort that they're making, and then looks at how we need to support and supplement those efforts, so that we really cover some of these problems comprehensively and we don't leave things undone or leave holes.

You know, is that going to produce more money? Yes, it probably will in the long run. But it's not a…it's not a cash advance. There are other steps being taken, you might say, somewhat parallel on the fiscal and monetary problems. Those things are coordinated with treasuries, finance ministries, international institutions. And…but Friends is more devoted to making sure that on the strategic level that we understand Pakistan's plans and that we're putting our programs to support them.

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