Islamabad: Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif will visit the United States next month for talks with senior US military commanders and defence officials, a Pakistani local daily said.
In a report from its correspondent in Washington it quoted official sources as saying that Gen. Sharif is undertaking the visit on a personal invitation from Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.
This will be Gen. Sharif’s first visit to the United States as the army chief, a position he assumed on November 29 last year.
During the visit, starting on November 16, he is expected to meet Gen, Dempsey, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, Commander of the US Central Command Gen Lloyd J. Austin and other members of the American defence establishment.
He is also likely to visit Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Florida, as its area of responsibility includes both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The United States and Afghanistan signed on September 30 a bilateral agreement allowing 10,000 US troops to remain in Afghanistan after a UN-sponsored international combat mission ends on December 31.
Pakistan supported the US-Afghan agreement, which goes into force on January 1 next year and will continue “until the end of 2024 and beyond” unless either side terminates it with two years’ notice. The US troops will not be the only foreign troops staying in Afghanistan.
Kabul signed a similar agreement with Nato on September 30 to allow 4,000 to 5,000 additional troops — mostly from Britain, Germany, Italy, and Turkey — to stay in Afghanistan in a non-combat role after 2014.
The newspaper report said according to officials in Washington there will be a thorough discussion on strategic issues during Gen. Sharif’s visit.
