Trump administration slashes foreign military financing to Pakistan from USD 255 million to USD 100 million

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New Delhi: The Donald Trump administration has slashed its foreign military financing (FMF) to Pakistan from USD 255 million to USD 100 million for the 2018 fiscal. However, it has kept its options open whether it would be a grant or should be converted into a loan, according to a US official. "While we may use FMF to leverage loans for some countries, we will still maintain the flexibility to use it as grant assistance where needed," reported news agency PTI. "This budget focuses on bilateral FMF assistance requested for Israel (USD 3.1 billion), Egypt (USD 1.3 billion), Jordan (USD 350 million), and Pakistan (USD 100 million)," the spokesman said, reported news agency. Recently, Trump, during his speech at the Arab-Islamic-U.S. summit, in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) acknowledged that India was a victim of terrorism and asked countries to ensure that terror groups don't find sanctuaries on their soil. Trump pledged to work alongside the West Asian nations to combat extremist ideology in the region. He said that all the countries from the U.S. to India, Australia to Russia had been "victim of terrorism and have suffered repeated barbaric attacks." Without naming Pakistan, President said "every country must ensure that terrorists don't find any sanctuary on their lands", reported news agency ANI. On Sunday afternoon, while addressing the leaders of 50 Muslim-majority countries in his first speech on a foreign soil, Trump, meanwhile, called on the Middle-eastern countries to combat the crisis of Islamic extremism coming out from the region. Trump sought to chart a new course for America's role in the region and termed the fight against terrorism as a "battle between good and evil," and not a clash between "the West and Islam." "This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilisations," Trump said and added, "This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. This is a battle between good and evil," news agency reported. President of United States said that Muslim leaders must do more to confront extremism.