WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Wednesday praised US President Barack Obama for saying he would visit the country next year, calling it a sign of commitment between the troubled war partners.
Obama, meeting with a senior Pakistani delegation, said he would not visit when he travels to neighboring India next month. But he committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011 and invited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, speaking afterward at the Brookings Institution think-tank, called his meeting with Obama “very satisfying.”
“The fact that he has agreed to visit Pakistan next year, the fact that he has decided to invite the president of Pakistan to the United States of America, that is the level of engagement that is taking place,” Qureshi said.
The United States has played a delicate balancing act, seeking to show Pakistan it seeks a relationship beyond cooperation on Afghanistan while also trying to broaden its ties with India, the world’s largest democracy.
But Qureshi acknowledged “obviously there are concerns” that remain between Pakistan and the United States.
In a recent report to Congress, the White House said bluntly that, though it had made sacrifices in the US anti-terror campaign, Pakistan could do more to crack down on extremist safe-havens in lawless tribal areas.
Pakistan this month temporarily shut down its main land crossing for war supplies into Afghanistan, outraged after a Nato helicopter killed Pakistani troops along the border.
“Fighting terrorism remains a strategic and moral imperative for us,” Qureshi said, insisting that “our nation has suffered the most” from extremism and was committed to international cooperation.”
But Qureshi warned: “Actions are required that reinforce and not undercut such counter-terrorism cooperation.”