US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Islamabad on Thursday for talks with Pakistani leaders aimed at jump-starting a troubled relationship.
Secretary Clinton, who was in Kabul on Wednesday, and her team are expected to meet Pakistan’s civil and military leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
The visit is her own initiative and has been portrayed in the US media as “a list-ditch effort” to salvage America’s partnership with Pakistan.
She is coming at a time when US-Pakistan relations have plunged to a new low following accusations by senior American officials that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency is using the Haqqani network to wage a proxy war in Afghanistan and to attack US and foreign forces. It also takes place against the backdrop of a reported US and Afghan troop build-up along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
On Wednesday, State Department’s spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing in Washington that the US wanted to engage Pakistan constructively and was also seeking to improve relations between Pakistan and India and Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“We need good relations between Pakistan and India. We need good, constructive relations between India and Afghanistan, between Afghanistan and Pakistan so that all three countries can prosper and increase stability and peace in the area,” he said.
“Certainly, an important element of that in Pakistan and elsewhere is strengthening democratic institutions and democratic governance.”
CIA Director David Petraeus, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen Martin Dempsey and Under-Secretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy will join Secretary Clinton in Islamabad.
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