No change to Pak-US military-to-military relationship: Pentagon

WASHINGTON (92 News) – Pakistan remains a critical partner to America's South Asia strategy, the Pentagon said on Monday, a day after President Donald Trump said that Islamabad was not doing ‘a damn thing’ for the US. During an off-camera news conference, Director of Defense Press Operations Col Rob Manning said: "The US and Pakistan have a strong mutual interests in the region. As you know, they are critical (and) vital to the South Asia strategy and including the facilitation of a peace process that would lead to a stable and peaceful Afghanistan." He said that they (Pakistan) remain a critical partner in the US South Asia strategy and there's been no change to our military-to-military relationship with Pakistan. "I do not have any announcement on any change to the military-to-military relationship we have with Pakistan," Manning said, when asked that his answer reflects that the Pentagon differs with the views of President Trump on Pakistan. In an interview to a television news channel on Sunday, Trump had defended his administration's decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan for not doing enough to curb terrorism and criticised Islamabad for offering a hideout to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad.