Major international donors led by the US and Japan today pledged more than USD 5 billion in aid to Pakistan to stabilise the cash-strapped country after its President Asif Ali Zardari warned them that the battle against terrorism would not end "on my border."
"If we lose, you lose," Zardari told top leaders from Japan, US, Middle East and international financial institutions, adding "if we are the losers, the world is a loser."
As the 40 donors lined up to help Pakistan, Zardari acknowledged their desire to come to the aid of his country but said "... I still fear that the understanding of the danger that Pakistan faces still does not register fully in the mind of the world."
Voicing determination to fight this "tremendous challenge," Zardari called for broad support saying that the defeat for the nuclear state of 170 million people was not an option. "We do not and cannot afford it."
The US and Japan were the major donors with USD one billion each followed by Saudi Arabia pledging USD 700 million and European Union USD 640 million, with all of them saying that the money was to battle extremist violence.
"Development partners pledged new financing for Pakistan totalling more than five billion US dollars over the next two years," a statement issued at the end of the one-day donor conference here said.
Both Washington and Tokyo will make their contributions over the next two years. Saudi Arabia's pledge would also be dispersed over the next two years, and the EU's over the next four years.
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Opening the donor meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso called for "global solidarity" to help Pakistan overcome its economic woes and strengthen counter-terrorism.
Aso said "without the stability of Pakistan there can be no stable Afghanistan, and vice versa."
He said Tokyo places special emphasis on Pakistan's fight against terrorism, given the country's unstable border areas with Afghanistan, where al Qaeda and Taliban are resurgent.
"The stability of the border regions of the two countries is the key to success and I would like to stress the need for the international community to support both Pakistan and Afghanistan as they work out their own comprehensive strategies vis-a-vis the border region," Kyodo news agency quoted the Japanese Premier as saying.
US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, described the meeting as an "extreme success" and said Islamabad should consider its outcome as a very good day for the people of the country.
Holbrooke called the US pledge "a down payment on President (Barack) Obama's commitment" to a bill to pump 1.5 billion dollars a year into Pakistan for at least five years, to fight poverty and strengthen democracy.