The United States and Pakistan reaffirmed their commitment to wide-ranging strategic partnership as Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met during Pak-US steering group discussions at the State Department.
Secretary Hillary Clinton said the two countries should "work and succeed together," Pakistan's ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani told reporters, citing the chief American diplomat's remarks. Clinton's appearance in the meeting reflected the level of US commitment to the important relationship, he said.
In a sign of continued commitment to sustain strategic partnership - while at the same time addressing differences in approaching issues - US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Marc Grossman will visit Pakistan next week. Salman Bashir was assured by his American interlocutors that Washington stands for stability of Pakistan as a stable Pakistan is in the interests of everyone including the United States. "We also underscored the importance of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan," Haqqani said of discussions.
Both sides "shared their strategic vision," at a meeting of the steering group - led by Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and Ambassador Marc Grossman - as they met to stress common objectives towards anti-terror success, Haqqani said. "The purpose was to dispel the misgivings" being projected in parts of the media, following recent incidents including the Raymond Davis episode and US drone strikes in tribal areas which Islamabad says are counterproductive.
Bashir and his delegation including Ambassador Husain Haqqani, Deputy Chief of Mission Iffat Gardezi, Director General Americas in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Suhail Khan and Spokesperson of the Foreign Office Tahmina Janjua met with Deputy Secretary Thomas Nide, Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake.
Welcoming the Pakistani diplomats, Deputy Secretary Nide noted that the United States has a "deep partnership" with Pakistan, Haqqani said, emphasising the ambience of the meeting, which sought to find strategic convergence and commonalties. Ambassador Haqqani also answered questions on some of the lingering issues. He said Pakistan has offered the biggest sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan's sacrifices must be acknowledged. It is the only country whose security forces have lost generals and where the most popular leader has been killed and the only country whose armed forces' headquarters has been target of militant attacks.
Speaking in the context of contentious headlines in the media on the state of bilateral ties, Ambassador Haqqani stressed that Pakistan-US relationship endures and retains its strength. He expressed the confidence that the two sides would be able to overcome any issues to move the strategic partnership forward.
In reply to another question he said there are no differences in the resolve to curb terrorism but there could be differences on how to proceed with the fight in the operational sense. The Pakistani leadership is clear that on its soil Pakistani forces will take action against militants in accordance with their state of their preparedness. Responding to yet another question, he said in the Musharraf era, Pakistan would deal differently in foreign policy issues but under the current democratic government, the country wants to conduct and formalise arrangements that are in accordance with constitution.
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