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Pak, US to open strategic dialogue tomorrow
By AP
The United States and Pakistan will try this week to get their crisis-prone relationship back on track after the latest US drive to win over hearts and minds faced quick setbacks.Senior officials from the two nations will on Wednesday open a “strategic dialogue,” an initiative launched by the United States earlier this year to show that it cares about more than just Pakistan’s help in Afghanistan.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the relationship also suffered “two steps back” with the helicopter attack and relentless US drone strikes aimed at militants.
“We are an ally, not a satellite,” Qureshi said Monday at Harvard University.
“We have to protect our borders — you have to respect our sovereignty.”
“You have to realize the political price you pay in Pakistan and that my government pays as your friend from the almost daily drone assaults on our territory,” he said.
“If unmanned drone attacks were not difficult enough for our people to absorb, the recent acts of NATO helicopters in Pakistan, killing soldiers, are nothing short of infuriating,” he said.
The three-day talks will culminate Friday in talks between Qureshi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Qureshi said the United States can improve relations by taking up issues on which it has long been hesitant — such as pursuing a free trade deal, discussing civil nuclear cooperation along the lines of a US pact with India, or pressuring India over the disputed Kashmir region.
Courtesy www.aaj.tv