France pledges twelve million Euro in aid to Pakistan

May 16, 2009 In a meeting with Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari in Paris on Friday, French president Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to give twelve million Euro (US$16.2 million) in humanitarian aid to Pakistan.

The funds will be given to more than one million internally displaced persons (IPD) in Pakistan who have been forced to flee from their homes following heavy violence between Taliban militants and the Pakistani army in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

"We've come to an understanding for a larger cooperation for the strengthening of Pakistan, strengthening of the war [...] the war going on in this region," President Zardari said.

Zardari stressed that Pakistan and its neighbours needed to cooperate against the Taliban and other terrorist threats, saying that, "it is a war against a mindset and there is no time limit for the offensive".