Transcript of a press conference given by the Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown and Mr Asid Alu Zardari, President of Pakistan, in Islamabad, Sunday 14 December 2008
Spokesman
Ladies and gentlemen, now the President of Pakistan will read out his statement and then the Prime Minister of Britain will read out a statement. Mr President.
President Zardari
Thank you. Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen of the press. I wish to once again welcome Prime Minister Gordon Brown. We had very productive talks on regional and bilateral relations. Pakistan and the UK have been good friends and partners. Our friendship is deep, rooted and founded on shared values it has been committed to a large Pakistan expatriate community in the United Kingdom. We welcome the UK’s contribution to promoting democracy and the rule of law. We also value our close association with the Commonwealth. We have appraised the Prime Minister about Pakistan’s desire to build a durable peace in South Asia. We want to have the best of relations with India. Terrorism and extremism are a common problem which requires co-operative efforts. The problems are not specific to a country but are global. In the wake of the Mumbai attacks we have signalled to co-operate to India. We have started an investigation on our own and have offered joint investigation. Pakistan is also engaged closely with Afghanistan on issues of security and stability as well as to build partnership for development. I also conveyed to the British Prime Minister the importance we attach to our relations with the European Union and the need for greater market access for Pakistani good into the EU market. Our bilateral relations have progressed well. The UK is an important development partner of Pakistan. We are grateful for the support extended to us. I wish to thank the Prime Minister for his important contribution to the strengthening of the Pakistan-UK relationship
Prime Minister:
President Zardari, can I thank you first of all for your hospitality in welcoming me to your country and can I thank you also for the regular contact we have by telephone and at other meetings.
President Zardari:
You are welcome Sir.
Prime Minister:
Terrorism is a global problem and it was important for me to come to Pakistan and to India this time and to meet President Zardari today. The most recent horrific attacks in Mumbai where over 170 people from all over the world were killed are a human tragedy on a terrible scale and a chilling reminder that we are all victims of terrorism and that against the terrible evil of terrorism we must forever remain vigilant. President Zardari’s family have suffered grievously at the hands of terrorists. Pakistanis themselves have been victims of over 50 suicide attacks here in Pakistan this year compared to only 7 two years ago. We and Pakistan have a shared interest in working with Afghanistan to root out terrorist networks there. I told President Zardari that three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots investigated by the British authorities have links to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. So our aim must be to work together to do everything in our power to cut off terrorism.
So I have proposed to President Zardari a new UK-Pakistan pact against terror. My discussions with President Zardari have reassured me that his authorities are determined to act against those who are behind the Mumbai attacks. We will work to ensure that everything is done to make sure that terrorists are denied any safe haven in Pakistan. The time has come for action and not words and I want to help Pakistan and other countries to root out terrorism. In return for this action we will continue to expand our counter-terrorism assistance programme with Pakistan and it will be more than ever the most comprehensive anti-terrorist programme Britain has signed with any country. We will act specifically to develop Pakistani bomb-disposal capability, to provide scanning equipment, particularly to help detect car bombs, to act in concert to improve Pakistani airport security, to finance and help with the extremism centres and to help with legislation, where necessary, against terrorism, to strengthen information-sharing between our police forces, including on forensics and on crisis response, and I can also announce we will develop a £6 million programme to tackle the causes of radicalisation and to strengthen the democratic institutions of Pakistan.
Through these measures we hope to do more to break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK and other countries around the world. In my conversations with President Zardari I have understood the concern and anger that he and I feel at the Mumbai outrages and in both my conversations with President Zardari and Prime Minister Singh earlier this morning I have been reassured that the leadership of both countries want to choose the path of diplomacy and greater understanding.
I have proposed a series of measures that include a reinvigoration of the mechanisms for dialogue and consultation. The President has assured me he is taking further action to clamp down on terrorists suspected of involvement in Mumbai. My discussions with President Zardari have underlined that Pakistan’s future is as a democratic partner, at peace with its neighbours, playing a full role as part of the international community, given our support as it faces its economic challenges and given our support in practical terms as we deal with the global problem of terrorism.
Question:
Prime Minister, we understand that you are asking the British police to speak to the man involved with the Mumbai terrorist attack, the suspect. I wondered what that would bring to Britain. How would it benefit Britain for the British police to speak to the suspect in the Mumbai terrorist attack?
And for President Zardari. If the British police wanted to speak to people arrested in Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks would you be in agreement and have you done enough to satisfy India that you are taking the terrorist threat seriously?
Prime Minister:
Three British citizens, two with dual nationality, were killed in the Mumbai outrage and I asked Prime Minister Singh this morning if he would allow the British police if they chose to do so to interview the person arrested as one of the suspects for organising and participating in outrage. And I have similarly asked President Zardari if it were to be the case that the British police wanted to interview people who were suspected within his own country, whether he would be prepared to allow that or whether his police authorities would be prepared to allow that and that is a matter I have left with Prime Minister Singh and President Zardari. I think we all have an interest in discovering what lay behind the Mumbai outrages. It affects all our countries when there are a group of terrorists who are prepared to take the action that was taken. It was a blow against not simply the citizens of India but many citizens of other countries and terrorism is a problem that President Zardari wants to deal with just as we want to deal with it too, so the maximum co-operation between the different authorities is something that is essential now in the fight against terrorism. I remind you also that our authorities suggest that three-quarters of the most serious terrorist plots investigated by the British authorities have links to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
President Zardari:
Yes, ma’am, in our answer to the demarche from India offered to co-operate in the investigation with India. We have already offered a joint investigation team.
Question:
Mr President you have offered full co-operation to India to investigate the Bombay mayhem and you have been appeasing India in that respect but the Indian response has been very aggressive. Only yesterday two fighters of the Indian Air Force violated our airspace. Indians are being encouraged by your policy of appeasement and they have assumed a very aggressive posture. What is your comment on that?
President Zardari:
Should I deny that I am appeasing anybody. I am assisting the world and myself and Pakistan. I am the President of Pakistan. We are committed to fight against terrorism, to terrorism in any form, whether it is in India, whether it is in Britain, whether it is in America or any other part of the world and if it is brought to our attention, we feel empathy and sympathy and you realise that I am a personal victim of terrorism so I feel for the people in Bombay and India and we considered this an opportunity to be able to co-operate with India, to take the relationship with India on another level. The day that this incident happened, our Foreign Minister was on the Indian soil already signing up to a mutual agreement of co-operation on terrorism and as far as the incursion in the soil of Pakistan is concerned, my information, and which is the correct information and version, it is a technical incursion. It is not an incursion as such. It is a pattern of two planes when they are flying at 40,000 feet up in the air, when they turn, the turn has slightly entered Pakistan soil and there is already a dialogue between RDGMO (phon.) and their counterparts that such incursions do happen. It is just that the press appreciate bad news and good news, so at the moment they have been trying to sell bad news and I would appreciate it if they didn’t.
Spokesman:
Now the journalists from the visiting media team.
Question:
You mentioned a new UK-Pakistan pact on counter-terrorism. Can I ask both the Prime Minister and the President what specific steps the Pakistani Government can take to eradicate training camps in Pakistan through which a number of these suicide bombers are known to have passed and to prevent terrorists from crossing the border into Afghanistan and are you confident, Prime Minister Brown, that Pakistan has both the capacity and the will to deliver on this?
Prime Minister:
Let me say first of all that we are providing, as a result of our discussions, more capacity to Pakistan to deal with these problems, more capacity for scanning, for detecting car bombs, for bomb disposal capability, airport security. More capacity also to deal with policing, including forensic science and crisis response and we are providing more money today - £6 million - to tackle the causes of radicalisation. I think it is right that we have to help Pakistan to root out terrorism from within its own country and I am grateful to President Zardari for agreeing with me that we must do everything in our power, because all of us suffer when terrorists are active and are able to impose their will.
As far as the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, I talked to President Karzai yesterday and to President Zardari today and we have talked about this exact problem about how we could do more to make sure that there was more security at the border itself, and these will be discussions that we will take further in the future because it is in all our interests to root out a problem where from Afghanistan to Pakistan, or from Pakistan to Afghanistan, there are people who are practising terror moving with ease. That is what we want to stop.
President Zardari:
Yes, ma’am, we are already in co-operation with the United Kingdom and the United States and the extended world on terrorism and this further brings attention to the problem that the region has. The democratic Government of Pakistan has always been saying so. This is a regional issue. It is a regional problem and we need more help in order to face this problem. That is the reason we have been in dialogue with the world. That is one of the charters (?) of the friends of Pakistan and hopefully we intend to do more.
Question:
My question is to the President of Pakistan. You said that you have already launched investigations from the Pakistan side. My question is, have you launched investigations into the link that the surviving gunman in Bombay is supposed to have in Pakistan which has been independently reported by many Pakistani newspapers?
President Zardari:
Ma’am, from what I hear from the press and not directly from your government, is that they have still not completed their investigation. I am hoping that once the Indian Government completes the investigation and shares the information with us we will have further leads to further find if there are any culprits on this side of the border and we will take action against them.
Question:
You have been talking about this new co-operation with Pakistan, Prime Minister, but I know you have just come from India. Have you got any similar arrangements with India for further co-operation to counter terrorism and have you been satisfied by the response that you have been given by President Zardari on the concerns raised by Prime Minister Singh in India about …. counter-terrorism?
Prime Minister:
Yes. First of all I discussed with Prime Minister Singh a number of measures that he will …. in India to implement and that includes counter-terrorism co-operation at the highest level and I think all of us - Pakistan and the rest of the world and Britain - have an interest in India being able to step up its counter-terrorism preparations and its capabilities. So we talked in India also about airport security. We talked about help against radicalisation. We talked about other measures that we could take to give the Indian security authorities more support in information-sharing and data sharing from all the different countries of the world, so we are in agreement with India to give them more security help as well. The reason I emphasise the help that we are giving to Pakistan is today we have been able to talk in detail about a number of areas where the Pakistan Government would appreciate specific help immediately so that they could step up its counter-terrorism capacity and that is why there is a comprehensive list of things that we are prepared to support financially to make sure that the global problem of terrorism can be attacked from Pakistan.
At the same time we did talk about the measures that the Pakistan Government could take and the Pakistan authorities to help the Indian police and security authorities in their investigations. I proposed a number of things to the President. He assures me that he is taking further action to clamp down on terrorists suspected of any involvement in Mumbai and he also assures me of his determination that there are better mechanisms for dialogue and consultation with India so that any misunderstandings about what has been done can actually be removed and I will talk again to Prime Minister Singh and President Zardari after our discussions.
Question:
Prime Minister, you have announced plans for a £6 million to combat radicalisation. How will that work. Where are you going to throw that money and what makes you think that just spending some money will actually do some good?
Prime Minister:
Well I just talked to President Zardari about the uses of that money and he may want to add something but we want to show people what is happening that would prevent them being attracted to the extremism of those people who preach a perversion of good faith and those people who may be incited to be part of violent activity. So there are messages, there is educational material, there is information material and there is the possibility of dialogue particularly with young people, and that £6 million is being made available so that we can encourage that sort of dialogue and that sort of educational material to be made available. It is part, I may say, of the other measures that we are announcing today that involve financial expenditure including bomb-disposal capability, scanning equipment, improving airport security and other things. And let me just emphasise why we in Britain have an interest in making Pakistan more secure. It is not only because of the great friendship between our two countries and our desire to support President Zardari, but people in Britain know that what can happen in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan can affect directly what happens in the streets of our cities and towns, what can happen in Afghanistan and Pakistan can end up with people in Britain and other countries feeling less secure and that is why I want to remove the chain of terror that links terrorists across the globe and impacts on every country including suicide bombing attacks and other attacks in Pakistan and that is why I believe in reporting to President Zardari that three-quarters of the big investigations that our police and security authorities have had to undertake in Britain have links to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan shows the importance to Britain of helping Pakistan not just as a friend but because we all suffer, as President Zardari’s family itself have suffered, from the evil acts of terrorists.
Question:
President Zardari said that the Indians have not presented enough evidence so far to move forward with ..
President Zardari:
I have not said that. They have said that.
Question:
Let me finish the question, Sir. But it is clear that the United States and the United Kingdom have presented evidence of phone intercepts linking the attackers to Pakistan, so why is that not enough proof yet to move faster and with greater action here?
President Zardari:
That is why we say we are investigating. The Indian side is investigating, and the incident happened there to say that we could come up with proof earlier than they can would be asking for a little much from us. We are investigating and we are using all possible assistance from the international community.
Prime Minister:
And we have agreed to provide more information today. Thank you.
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