Pakistan – Australia 1.5 Track Security Dialogue

The Chief of the Defence Force, Gen­er­al David Hur­ley, has co-chaired the sec­ond round of the Pak­istan – Aus­tralia 1.5 Track Secu­ri­ty Dia­logue with Pakistan’s Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Com­mit­tee, Gen­er­al Khalid Shameem Wynne, in Rawalpin­di, Pak­istan.

Last week’s Dia­logue involved key secu­ri­ty deci­sion mak­ers from a range of agen­cies, and select­ed think tank rep­re­sen­ta­tives, from Aus­tralia and Pakistan. 

Gen­er­al Hur­ley said the Dia­logue was an impor­tant mech­a­nism for senior secu­ri­ty deci­sion-mak­ers and strate­gists from Aus­tralia and Pak­istan to share their per­spec­tives on areas of crit­i­cal impor­tance to both countries. 

“Aus­tralia is aware of the sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges posed by vio­lent extrem­ism in the bor­der regions of Pak­istan and Afghanistan, as well as the con­sid­er­able price Pak­istan has paid, and con­tin­ues to pay,” Gen­er­al Hur­ley said. 

Del­e­gates dis­cussed the secu­ri­ty chal­lenges fac­ing Pak­istan, and how Aus­tralia could assist Pak­istan to address the threat posed by vio­lent extrem­ism. Dis­cus­sion also focused on broad­er region­al secu­ri­ty with a par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on Afghanistan. 

“Aus­tralia will con­tin­ue to sup­port Pakistan’s efforts to con­front the chal­lenges posed by extrem­ism. Only con­cert­ed inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion and engage­ment will reduce the space in which such ter­ror­ists hide,” Gen­er­al Hur­ley said. 

Dur­ing the vis­it, Gen­er­al Hur­ley also met sep­a­rate­ly with Chief of Army Staff, Gen­er­al Kayani, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Mar­shal Rao Qamar Sule­man, and Chief of Naval Staff, Admi­ral Muham­mad Asif Sandi­la, to dis­cuss Australia’s defence engage­ment with Pakistan. 

Gen­er­al Hur­ley also had dis­cus­sions on broad­er domes­tic and region­al secu­ri­ty mat­ters with the Min­is­ter for Defence, Chaudry Ahmed Muhktar. 

Gen­er­al Hur­ley thanked Gen­er­al Wynne for the hos­pi­tal­i­ty shown to the Aus­tralian del­e­ga­tion through­out the visit. 

“The Dia­logue and meet­ings with senior Gov­ern­ment fig­ures and Pak­istan mil­i­tary chiefs reflect both coun­tries’ sin­cere desire to learn from each other’s expe­ri­ence and engage in a frank exchange of ideas on secu­ri­ty mat­ters,” Gen­er­al Hur­ley said. 

Sub­se­quent to the Dia­logue, Gen­er­al Hur­ley offered his con­do­lences to the Pak­istan mil­i­tary and the fam­i­lies of the sol­diers who were killed and wound­ed in the cross bor­der inci­dent on 26th November. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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