We are strategic partners with a common enemy: Kerry

US Senator John Kerry on Monday called Pakistan and the United States “strategic partners with a common enemy” as he sought to ease distrust in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Kerry also said that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon announce plans to visit Pakistan.

Kerry said he had held “constructive conversations” with Pakistan’s leaders but reiterated “grave concerns” over the presence in Pakistan of the al Qaeda terror chief and sanctuaries of US adversaries in Afghanistan.

“More importantly I explained that I am here with the backing of President (Barack) Obama, (US) ambassador (to Pakistan Cameron) Munter and their team to find a way to rebuild the trust between our two countries,” he said.

“We must never lose sight of this essential fact. We are strategic partners with a common enemy in terrorism and extremism.

“Both of our countries have sacrificed… so much that it just wouldn’t make sense to see this relationship broken or abandoned,” he added.

Kerry said Pakistan had “recommitted to find more ways to work against the common threat of terrorism” and to increase cooperation on intelligence sharing and operations to “defeat the enemies that we face”.

In one tangible, concrete achievement, Kerry said Pakistan would return on Tuesday the tail of a helicopter. Navy SEALs destroyed the chopper during the operation that got bin Laden after a hard landing.

Pakistan, which has lost thousands of soldiers and civilians in the fight against homegrown Taliban and to Al-Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks, said the allies would work together on future high-value targets in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani joined forces with Kerry to say that the two countries now needed to rebuild trust.

“It was the need of the hour that Pakistan and US should rebuild the trust and confidence between their governments and institutions,” his office said in a statement released after his talks with Kerry.

There have been heightened security fears in Pakistan since the bin Laden operation and the killing of a Saudi diplomat in a hail of gunfire Monday was the second attack on Saudi interests in Karachi in less than a week.

Last Wednesday, drive-by assailants threw two grenades at the consulate in Karachi in what officials said could have been a reaction to Saudi-born bin Laden’s death.