ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday denied the presence of any US military or airbase in Pakistan, stating that any speculation in this regard is “baseless and irresponsible” and should be avoided.
“There is no US military or airbase in Pakistan; nor was any such proposal envisaged. Any speculation on this account was baseless and irresponsible and should be avoided,” FO Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a statement.
The spokesman further said Pakistan and the United States have a framework of cooperation in terms of Air Lines of Communication (ALOC) and Ground Lines of Communication (GLOC) in place since 2001. “No new agreement has been made in this regard,” he added.
Earlier in October, Pakistan denied that it had reached any formal agreement with the US for the use of its airspace to conduct “military and intelligence operations” in Afghanistan.
The statement came after CNN, in its report, cited three “sources familiar with the details of a classified briefing” to the US Congress, and said that the Biden administration had informed US lawmakers that the country was close to striking a formal deal with Pakistan on the use of its airspace.
The report claimed that Pakistan had “expressed a desire” to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in return for help in its own counterterrorism operations and assistance with managing the relationship with India.
It further maintained that according to a source, negotiations were still underway and the details of the agreement, which have not yet been hammered out, were still subject to change.
