WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described relations between the United States and Pakistan on Sunday as “very challenging”, a tacit admission of strained ties between the key allies.
Speaking after Pakistan boycotted a trilateral meeting on Afghanistan in Brussels in protest against a drone attack that killed 39 people, Clinton said Islamabad was caught between wanting to help and dealing with its own extremist threat. “It’s a very challenging relationship, because there have been some problems,” she said in an interview with the ABC program This Week.
“It’s a very difficult relationship, because Pakistan is in a hard position, trying to figure out how it’s going to contend with its own internal extremist threat,” she said. “But I think, on the other hand, we’ve also developed good lines of communication, good opportunities for cooperation, but it’s something we have to work on every day,” she added.
Clinton noted the cooperation of the Pakistani government in securing the release of Raymond Davis, a Central Intelligence Agency contractor who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore, as well as in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism. “We were very appreciative of getting our diplomat out of Pakistan, and that took cooperation by the government of Pakistan,” she said.
“We have cooperated very closely together in going after terrorists who pose a threat to both us and to the Pakistanis themselves,” she said.
