US President Barack Obama met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Tuesday in the highest level talks between the sides since the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil sent ties tumbling.
The two men met on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in South Korea, with the crucial anti-terror alliance still rocked by a row sparked when US air strikes mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
Pakistani-US relations plummeted after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden in a US Navy SEAL operation carried out without Islamabad’s knowledge. The raid was seen as a humiliation for Pakistan’s rulers and armed forces.
Then the crisis over the air strikes brought the uneasy anti-terror alliance, forged in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, almost to the point of rupture.
“We are constantly in a bilateral discussion with the Pakistanis about our counter-terrorism operations,” said deputy US national security advisor Ben Rhodes.
“Frankly, we have seen significant success in those counter-terrorism operations because US and Pakistani cooperation has enabled the devastation really of the Al-Qaeda leadership in that part of the world.
“That will certainly be a part of the agenda… in the bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Gilani.”
Pakistani lawmakers have demanded an American apology and taxes on NATO convoys in recommendations put to parliament, to be debated as a possible precursor to reopening NATO supply lines into Afghanistan.
Islamabad closed its Afghan border to NATO after the air strikes and has been incensed by the lack of an US apology.
The Pakistani government also ordered US personnel to leave a base reportedly used in America’s drone war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
