News
US, Pakistan see new spirit of trust
WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan pledged Wednesday to build a new spirit of trust after years of mutual recriminations, with Islamabad's top diplomat saying that US suspicions have now evaporated.But officials from the former Cold War partners, holding a first-of-a-kind "strategic dialogue" in Washington, acknowledged a bumpy road lay ahead with the United States cool to Pakistan's more ambitious appeals for cooperation.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the nations were starting a "new day" with the dialogue, which the United States hopes will show the Pakistani public that it wants a relationship that goes beyond battling militants.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was visibly happy coming out of talks, saying that US officials and lawmakers were no longer questioning whether his country was two-faced in its fight against extremism.
"It's a 180-degree difference," he told a joint news conference with Clinton.
"There were no more question marks, there was no suspicion, there was no 'do more,'" he said. "There was appreciation for what we had already done."
Qureshi also said that the United States would pay by the end of June some two billion dollars which Pakistan says it is owed for its role in past military operations.
President Asif Ali Zardari last year ordered a major offensive against homegrown Taliban extremists. Pakistan has also arrested a number of senior militants including the Afghan Taliban's number two.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who joined the dialogue, told a congressional hearing it was "extraordinary" to watch Pakistan's growing realization that Islamic extremism poses an "existential threat."
But many foreign officials and analysts have questioned Pakistan's motivations in Afghanistan, believing it is more concerned about preserving influence than fighting the Taliban.
In Washington, there nonetheless has been growing unanimity on the need to engage Pakistan and assuage rampant anti-Americanism in the Islamic world's only declared nuclear power.
The US Congress last year approved a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar aid package for Pakistan, hoping to chip away support for Islamic extremism by building schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions.
Clinton said the United States wanted to be a partner of Pakistan on a "full range of matters," while acknowledging the two nations would not always see eye-to-eye.
"We have listened and we will continue to listen and we want to demonstrate by both word and deed our respect for Pakistan's concerns and ideas and share our own. This is a dialogue that flows in both directions," she said.
Clinton announced that the United States would approve road and energy projects and let Pakistan International Airlines fly to Chicago. It will be the flag carrier's second destination in the United States after New York.
But the United States appeared cool to some key items on Pakistan's wish list. Pakistan wants a civilian nuclear deal with the United States similar to a landmark agreement reached by India. The rival nations stunned the world with nuclear tests in 1998.
Clinton said only that the United States was dedicated to helping Pakistan "meet its real energy needs," pointing to 125 million dollars in past support for civilian energy projects.
The United States has longstanding worries about proliferation from Pakistan.Qureshi also sought a "constructive" US role on Kashmir, the Muslim-majority Himalayan territory divided between Pakistan and India since the subcontinent's partition.
The United States has walked a fine line as it also builds relations with India, which considers Kashmir a domestic issue. India has said it is willing to discuss all issues on Kashmir except redrawing boundaries.
Former State Department official Marvin Weinbaum, now a scholar at the Middle East Institute, sensed US attitudes were changing on Pakistan since Zardari made good on threats to attack militant strongholds.
Despite longstanding concerns about Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, the spy agency's chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha has won trust in Washington, Weinbaum said.
"I don't think people's suspicions about Pakistan have gone away, but I think there is a new willingness to give them the benefit of the doubt," he said.
Courtesy www.Geo.tv