Pakistan, US discuss post 2014 transition in Afghanistan

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Brussels as part of their regular consultations.
They reviewed the progress the two countries have made during 2012 and expressed their commitment to act jointly to achieve their shared objectives.
Both the leaders discussed counter terrorism, support for the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process, the post 2014 transition in Afghanistan and various measures to further strengthen bilateral relations including the need to move the US-Pakistan economic agenda from aid to trade, emphasizing market access and investment.
They welcomed the recent meetings of the trilateral Corp Groups and the law enforcement, economic and defence working groups.
They also looked forward to meetings of the energy and strategic stability working groups and underlined the importance to continue these engagements in the weeks and months ahead.
Meanwhile, CNN in its report on the meeting between Hillary Clinton and Hina Rabbani Khan reported that the meeting of Hillary with Hina and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in Brussels was aimed at further improving Pak-US bilateral ties.
The Senior official of State Department said, this year the United States has tried to improve relations between the two countries by focusing on counterterrism cooperation, Afghanistan’s future and improving market access and trade not aid with bilateral investment treaty.
It may be mentioned that United States accounts for 20 percent of Pakistan’s exports.
The last time Clinton met with Pakistani leadership was in September 2012 at United Nations General Assembly session when she met with President Asif Ali Zardari and also met with President Zardari in Chicago in May during the NATO summit and discussed five common objectives for further cooperation between two countries.
The five objectives included counter terrorism measures, Afghanistan’s future, bilateral communication, countering improvised explosive devices that are being used against international troops in Afghanistan and the movement towards an economic trade relationship.
Two weeks ago Interior Minister Rehman Malik also met with U.S. Secretary of State Clinton in Washington.
The US State official said there is no sense of continued Pakistani hesitation to work with the United States and Pakistanis are pressing forward because “they recognize that 2014 is not so far away” as the US military withdrawal in Afghanistan is scheduled to be completed in 2014.