Transnational Issues Pakistan
Disputes - international:
thousands of Afghan refugees still reside in Pakistan; isolating
terrain and close ties among Pashtuns in Pakistan make cross-border
activities difficult to control; armed stand-off with India over the
status and sovereignty of Kashmir continues - India objects to
Pakistan ceding lands to China in 1965 boundary agreement that India
believes are part of disputed Kashmir; disputes with India over
Indus River water sharing and the terminus of the Rann of Kutch,
which prevents maritime boundary delimitation
Illicit drugs:
opium poppy cultivation practically eliminated; key transit point
for Southwest Asian heroin bound for Western markets; Afghan
narcotics continue to transit Federally Administered Tribal Areas,
Balochistan Province, and Karachi; financial crimes related to drug
trafficking, terrorism, corruption, and smuggling remain problems
This page was last updated on 18 December, 2003
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@Palau
Introduction Palau
Background:
After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the
Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the
Caroline Islands opted for independence in 1978 rather than join the
Federated States of Micronesia. A Compact of Free Association with
the US was approved in 1986, but not ratified until 1993. It entered
into force the following year, when the islands gained independence.
Geography Palau
Location:
Oceania, group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, southeast of
the Philippines