Amid a persisting deadlock in negotiations over NATO supply routes, President Asif Ali Zardari discussed various issues with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who called on him on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Pakistan and the United States have been working for several weeks to reach an agreement that would lift Islamabad’s blockade of NATO supply routes that pass through its land into landlocked Afghanistan to sustain American and NATO operations.
The US and its allies wanted the agreement on reopening the supply routes signed before the summit, which looks to showcase progress in Afghanistan.
Pakistan closed the supply routes following November 26 American warplanes strikes on two Pakistani border posts that killed 24 soldiers and sent bilateral ties into a crisis.
Pakistan had demanded a US apology over the attacks and also wanted it to end the drone strikes in the Tribal Areas to rebuild relations with Washington.
The president was assisted in the meeting by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman, Secretary General to the President Salman Farooqi and Senator Farhatullah Babar.
The US side included Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman, US Ambassador in Islamabad Cameron Munter and Director Pakistan Affairs at State Department Tim Lenderking.
Earlier, the president discussed bilateral ties with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.
The two agreed in principle to extend the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement beyond Afghanistan to the countries in Central Asia.
President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said both countries agreed that the modalities of extension of Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement to Central Asian states would be worked out later.
President Karzai welcomed a proposal by President Asif Ali Zardari to this effect, Babar said.
The two sides also discussed other bilateral relations and the regional situation.
Zardari discusses bilateral ties with Clinton, Karzai
