The United States wanted “long-term” security ties with Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday, as she was set to arrive in Pakistan today (Friday) in a move to soothe tensions raised by the killing of Osama bin Laden near Islamabad.
“It is in our national security interests to have a comprehensive long-term security partnership… with Pakistan,” Clinton told reporters in Paris on the sidelines of a development meeting of the OECD economic organisation. “We do have a set of expectations that we are looking for the Pakistani government to meet but I want to underscore it is not as though they have been on the sidelines,” she said, but gave no details about the “expectations”. “They have been actively engaged in their own bitter fight with these terrorists, extremists who target indiscriminately people from all walks of life, all ages, and we are going to look to put our partnership on as strong a foundation going forward as possible,” she said. “There have been times when we’ve had disagreements. There have been times when we wanted to push harder, for various reasons [the Pakistanis] have not,” Clinton said. “Those differences are real and will continue,” she added. She said, however, that the US was “ready and willing to support the people and government of Pakistan as they defend their own democracy”.
Pakistan had been a good partner in international efforts to fight terrorism, she said, despite anger in the US over the discovery that bin Laden had been living there for years before US commandos killed him in a May 2 raid. The “international community” had been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than anywhere else in the world, Clinton said. “This could not have been done without Pakistani cooperation,” she said. Meanwhile, Clinton, aided by US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, is set to hold crucial talks today with Pakistan’s top leadership in a bid to “rewrite” the deed for anti-terrorism cooperation between Islamabad and Washington. Confirming Clinton’s visit, the Foreign Office here said it would help rebuild trust between Islamabad and Washington. Clinton will be the highest-ranking US government official to visit Islamabad since bin Laden’s killing.
US eyes long-term ties with Pakistan
