The United States will pay only a fair price to Islamabad for use of Pakistani supply routes into Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Sunday as the two countries struggled to resolve differences over a number of issues including the restoration of ground lines.
He said in an interview that Washington and the American people were concerned about the strained relationship with Pakistan but vowed continued efforts at working with the “critical” South Asian country to curb terrorist threat.
Panetta also noted that treatment of a Pakistani doctor Dr Shakil Afridi – sentenced to 33 years imprisonment for working with CIA in tracing Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts – did not help the US-Pakistan relations.
“The GLOCS (ground lines of communication) these (Pakistani) transit points, are important to us. We would like to be able to use them. But we’re going to pay a fair price… They’re negotiating what that price ought to be. You know, clearly we don’t – we’re not about to get gouged in the price. We want a fair price,” he told ABC This Week programme.
The US defence secretary refused to specify the amount Washington would be willing to pay when he was asked a question on restoration of NATO supply routes in the context of Pakistan reportedly asking for $5,000 charge per container.
Islamabad has made the argument that it needs to spend huge sums of money to repair its roads the US and NATO used for more than a decade for passage of heavy equipment and other essential supplies.
The supply routes were closed following the November 26 American airstrikes on Pakistan posts along the Afghan border, which resulted in deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Currently, Panetta told the channel, the United States was relying on the Northern Distribution Network to transport supplies to sustain US-led NATO mission in landlocked Afghanistan. “We’re moving most of our stuff through the north. It’s more expensive, but we’re getting the job done, and they need to understand that we can continue to get the job done that we have to by using that northern distribution route.”
He said the Pakistani routes were important but indicated their use was not “absolutely essential” to completing the mission. “It would be convenient for us. We would like to be able to use the Pakistan gates, but it isn’t absolutely essential to our completing the mission that we’re involved with.”
On bilateral ties with Pakistan, Panetta said “this has been one of the most complicated relationships that we’ve had, working with Pakistan” and acknowledged Pakistan’s key importance in the region. “We have to continue to work at it. It is important. This is a country that has – that has nuclear weapons. This is a country that still is critical in that region of the world.”
“This is a country in which we have to go after an enemy that’s located in their country as we have. So we have to continue to try to work with them. It’s an up-and-down relationship. There have been periods where we’ve had good cooperation and they have worked with us. And there have been periods where we’ve had conflict.”
Panetta argued that but both countries had a responsibility to work together because they were dealing with common threats. “They’re dealing with the terrorist threat just like we are. They’ve had huge numbers of Pakistanis who’ve been killed by terrorists. So our responsibility here is to keep pushing them to understand how important it is for them to work with us to try to deal with the common threats we both face. And what they did with this doctor (Afridi) doesn’t help in the effort to try to do that.”
Asked to comment specifically on the sentencing of Dr Afridi, who ran a fake vaccination campaign to confirm DNA samples of bin Laden, before his was killed in an American raid in Abbottabad last year, the US defence secretary said, “It is so difficult to understand and it’s so disturbing that they would sentence this doctor to 33 years for helping in the search for the most notorious terrorist in our times. This doctor was not working against Pakistan.”
“He was working against al Qaeda. And I hope that ultimately Pakistan understands that, because what they have done here, I think, you know, does not help in the effort to try to reestablish a relationship between the United States and Pakistan.”
And what is a fair price Mr. Panetta and what about payment for the last eleven years? The two traitors, Musharraf & Zardari provided virtually free passage to NATO, while Pakistan's infrastructure crumbled.
Even at $1,000 per truck, the arrears alone will run into billions of dollars.
Will the US build at its cost, a brand new Motorway linking Gawadar and Karchi to Torkham on an emergency basis, is that a fair price? Give out a guaranteed contract to Daewoo, they will probably build it in two years.
Panetta knows that the military and political leadership of Pakistan will sell out for cheap. There is a joke that a man walks into a bar and asks a girl if she would suck his d i c k for 10 dollars. She says ofcourse not. He then asks her if she would do it for a million dollars. She says yes. The man then say that now that we have established that you are a c o c k sucker, lets negotiate. The same principle will be applied here 🙂
I ve written few lines on the subject at following link, plz visit:- http://malangpakistan.blogspot.com/?view=sidebar
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