US says it will continue to work closely with Pakistan to assess the damage caused by recent devastating floods

WASHINGTON, Sep 14 (SABAH): United States says it will continue to work closely with Pakistan to assess the damage caused by recent devastating floods and provide it assistance in this time of need.

During a press briefing in Washington, the US State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price said the United States is deeply saddened by the devastation and loss of life caused by the historic floods and stand with the people of Pakistan at this difficult time.

He said so far, more than half of the 630 metric tons of relief supplies from USAID’s Dubai warehouse has been delivered to Pakistan through nine flights in response to the massive floods.

Ned Price further said that in this fiscal year alone, “we’ve provided more than $53 million in humanitarian assistance, including urgently needed support for food, nutrition, multipurpose cash, safe drinking water, nutrition, sanitation and hygiene, as well as shelter assistance” to Pakistan.

“We’re going to continue to work very closely with our Pakistani partners to continue to assess the damage that has been wrought by these floods, and we’ll continue to provide assistance to our partners in this time of need,” he expressed the resolve.

He said the State Department recently notify Congress of the proposed foreign military sale as Pakistan is an important partner and as part of our policy, we provide lifecycle maintenance and sustainment packages for US-origin platforms.

Ned Price said that Washington expected Islamabad to take “sustained action” against all terrorist groups and that a recently proposed $450 million military sale package for the maintenance of Pakistan’s F-16 fleet would help serve this purpose.

“Pakistan’s F-16 programme, it’s an important part of the broader US-Pakistan bilateral relationship, and this proposed sale will sustain Pakistan’s capability to meet current and future counterterrorism threats by maintaining the F-16 fleet,” Price said.

“This is a fleet that allows Pakistan to support counterterrorism operations, and we expect Pakistan will take sustained action against all terrorist groups,” he added.