ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and the United States have agreed to hold the next round of bilateral “strategic dialogue” that was put on hold in the wake of a diplomatic row between Islamabad and Washington over the detention of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor Raymond Davis, who was arrested in Lahore for killing two Pakistanis in January.
With Davis’ release and the end of the US-Pakistan row over his detention, the Obama administration has given its nod to the next round of dialogue with Islamabad in May, with the venue still to be decided.
Since the last round of the dialogue was held in October last year in Washington, Pakistani authorities are urging US officials to hold it in Islamabad this time around, but the Obama administration seems to be against the idea and wants Washington to be the venue of the crucial talks aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries in defence, economy and several other sectors.
“Yes there is a difference of opinion over the venue for talks but that will be sorted out soon as the two sides have now agreed to hold the strategic dialogue next month, which is a very important decision keeping in view the tension that erupted between the two countries because of the Davis issue,” said a diplomat, requesting anonymity.
Earlier, US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman had said that the US and Pakistan were working together to resume their strategic dialogue and other high-level contacts delayed by recent strains in their relations. The next round of the strategic dialogue will provide an opportunity for the 13 working groups formed by the two sides to review progress to date in such critical sectors as communications and public diplomacy, water, energy, health, law enforcement and counter-terrorism, economic development and women’s empowerment as well as to discuss flood recovery and reconstruction plans.
“Pakistan and the United States are now working to chalk out a schedule for President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to Washington, which was earlier planned for April this year but also postponed because of the Davis issue,” the diplomat said. He said that similarly, the two sides were also working on President Barack Obama’s visit to Pakistan, which was announced last year but had not been scheduled yet.
A Pakistani official said that Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir would leave for the US early next month to chalk out an agenda for the dialogue. He said the Foreign Secretary would also review in his meetings with the US officials the progress made by the two sides on decisions taken during the third session of the ministerial-level strategic dialogue that was held in Washington on October 20-22 last year with the intention of transforming the bilateral relationship into a broad partnership.
He said it was during that session of the dialogue that it was decided to create 13 working groups that would work upon action plans and define achievable benchmarks.
