US President Barack Obama will not visit Pakistan during his trip to Asia next month, but he is committed to a trip there in 2011, as well as welcoming Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, the White House said on Wednesday.
Obama is traveling to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan next month.
Managing the complex U.S. relationship with Pakistan, including Islamabad’s role in the U.S.-led Afghanistan war, is one of Washington’s most difficult foreign policy challenges.
Despite a commitment of $7.5 billion in U.S. aid over five years and substantial U.S. aid after Pakistan’s devastating floods, Pakistanis remain skeptical of U.S. intentions.
Some commentators had said it would be an insult if Obama failed to visit Pakistan while touring the country’s arch-rival and neighbour, India.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates apologized to Pakistan Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for the recent deaths of Pakistani border guards in a U.S. helicopter strike, CNN reported, quoting a Pentagon spokesman.
Gen. Kayani met Wednesday morning with Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, and other officials in Washington as the two nations hold top-level strategic dialogue.
The deaths prompted the Pakistanis to temporarily close a crossing used by trucks that haul material to US-led NATO troops from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said three guards died last month in a U.S. helicopter strike when the crew mistook them for insurgents and fired at them over the Afghan border in Pakistan. Gates called the deaths “unintentional,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. He said the officials also discussed ways of improving military coordination along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the long-term relations between the United States and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, US and Pakistani military leaders discussed how to better coordinate combat operations along the Afghan border, the Pentagon said Wednesday, in the aftermath of a cross-border Nato raid that strained relations with Islamabad.
At the start of three days of US-Pakistan talks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani agreed in a 30-minute meeting on the need to improve cooperation on the Afghan-Pakistani border, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
“We’re both very active along the border and they talked at some length about how we can better coordinate our operations on our respective sides of the border,” Morrell told reporters.
Cooperation between military commanders already had improved on the border “but this incident clearly indicates that there’s more work to be done,” said Morrell, referring to the helicopter raid that left two Pakistani soldiers dead. Gates also repeated Washington’s regret over the incident, and “expressed his condolences to the families” of the Pakistan soldiers who died, he said.
The US defense secretary stressed that the shooting of the border guards was “unintentional” and that the American military was working with the Pakistanis to make sure it never happens again, he said.
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, also attended the meeting along with the third ranking official at the Pentagon, Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defense for policy.
Gates expressed “appreciation” for Pakistan’s military campaign against extremists on its soil and underlined Washington’s desire to build a long-term partnership that did not focus solely on security issues, Morrell said.
The Pentagon chief told the Pakistanis that the United States wanted “to elevate this relationship from the day-to-day ups and downs that it has historically experienced,” he said.Morrell also confirmed that the two discussed possible sales of US military equipment and other military assistance to Pakistan.
The two sides “talked about security assistance to Pakistan,” he said, without offering details.
Top Pakistani and American officials on Wednesday opened three-day discussions under strategic partnership dialogue as they seek to move towards implementation of key development projects for Pakistan and put behind recent tensions arising from anti-terror fight along the Afghan border.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will conclude third dialogue of the year on Friday, with the wide-ranging agenda focusing on cooperation in fields including secuirty, economic, trade, public diplomacy, energy, water, agriculture.
According to Frank Ruggerio, Deputy Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S-Pakistan partnership is central to the two countries’ shared goals in the region, where the U.S. has engaged heavily both militarily and diplomatically to defeat Al-Qaeda and curb a fierce Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials say they seek substantive progress on issues of importance to Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Qureshi laid out this week Islamabad’s emphasis on protection of its national interest and asked Washington to address its security concerns with respect to India over Kashmir and Afghanistan.
“What we are trying to create is a long-term, mature and mutually beneficial partnership —that dialogue, and the coordination of our policies, will define the direction and future of our bilateral relationship; as well as the success of the containment of terrorism and, quite possibly, the very future of the region,” he said at Harvard University.
On Wednesday Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira led the Pakistani team in discussions on public diplomacy and information technology with top US officials at the State Department.
Obama is traveling to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan next month.
Managing the complex U.S. relationship with Pakistan, including Islamabad’s role in the U.S.-led Afghanistan war, is one of Washington’s most difficult foreign policy challenges.
Despite a commitment of $7.5 billion in U.S. aid over five years and substantial U.S. aid after Pakistan’s devastating floods, Pakistanis remain skeptical of U.S. intentions.
Some commentators had said it would be an insult if Obama failed to visit Pakistan while touring the country’s arch-rival and neighbour, India.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates apologized to Pakistan Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for the recent deaths of Pakistani border guards in a U.S. helicopter strike, CNN reported, quoting a Pentagon spokesman.
Gen. Kayani met Wednesday morning with Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, and other officials in Washington as the two nations hold top-level strategic dialogue.
The deaths prompted the Pakistanis to temporarily close a crossing used by trucks that haul material to US-led NATO troops from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said three guards died last month in a U.S. helicopter strike when the crew mistook them for insurgents and fired at them over the Afghan border in Pakistan. Gates called the deaths “unintentional,” said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. He said the officials also discussed ways of improving military coordination along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the long-term relations between the United States and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, US and Pakistani military leaders discussed how to better coordinate combat operations along the Afghan border, the Pentagon said Wednesday, in the aftermath of a cross-border Nato raid that strained relations with Islamabad.
At the start of three days of US-Pakistan talks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and powerful army chief General Ashfaq Kayani agreed in a 30-minute meeting on the need to improve cooperation on the Afghan-Pakistani border, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
“We’re both very active along the border and they talked at some length about how we can better coordinate our operations on our respective sides of the border,” Morrell told reporters.
Cooperation between military commanders already had improved on the border “but this incident clearly indicates that there’s more work to be done,” said Morrell, referring to the helicopter raid that left two Pakistani soldiers dead. Gates also repeated Washington’s regret over the incident, and “expressed his condolences to the families” of the Pakistan soldiers who died, he said.
The US defense secretary stressed that the shooting of the border guards was “unintentional” and that the American military was working with the Pakistanis to make sure it never happens again, he said.
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, also attended the meeting along with the third ranking official at the Pentagon, Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defense for policy.
Gates expressed “appreciation” for Pakistan’s military campaign against extremists on its soil and underlined Washington’s desire to build a long-term partnership that did not focus solely on security issues, Morrell said.
The Pentagon chief told the Pakistanis that the United States wanted “to elevate this relationship from the day-to-day ups and downs that it has historically experienced,” he said.Morrell also confirmed that the two discussed possible sales of US military equipment and other military assistance to Pakistan.
The two sides “talked about security assistance to Pakistan,” he said, without offering details.
Top Pakistani and American officials on Wednesday opened three-day discussions under strategic partnership dialogue as they seek to move towards implementation of key development projects for Pakistan and put behind recent tensions arising from anti-terror fight along the Afghan border.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will conclude third dialogue of the year on Friday, with the wide-ranging agenda focusing on cooperation in fields including secuirty, economic, trade, public diplomacy, energy, water, agriculture.
According to Frank Ruggerio, Deputy Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S-Pakistan partnership is central to the two countries’ shared goals in the region, where the U.S. has engaged heavily both militarily and diplomatically to defeat Al-Qaeda and curb a fierce Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials say they seek substantive progress on issues of importance to Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Qureshi laid out this week Islamabad’s emphasis on protection of its national interest and asked Washington to address its security concerns with respect to India over Kashmir and Afghanistan.
“What we are trying to create is a long-term, mature and mutually beneficial partnership —that dialogue, and the coordination of our policies, will define the direction and future of our bilateral relationship; as well as the success of the containment of terrorism and, quite possibly, the very future of the region,” he said at Harvard University.
On Wednesday Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira led the Pakistani team in discussions on public diplomacy and information technology with top US officials at the State Department.
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