Clinton and Khar hold successful meeting to strengthen bonds

The Foreign Minister of Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar has voiced her opinion about having a cooperative relationship with the US. The Foreign Minister expressed herself while she was in Tokyo for the Tokyo Conference in Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister of
Pakistan was in a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

This was the first time that the two met each other after the negotiation about the re-opening of the NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The supply routes had been closed by Pakistan it the later part of last year when NATO forces conducted air strikes on
two of the border posts in Pakistan that led to the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers. The air strikes had continued on for a period of two hours and had not stopped despite the fact that the Pakistani military had contacted their NATO counter parts in order
to make a request for stopping the air strikes.  The military of Pakistan had called the air strikes an act of unprovoked aggression and demanded an apology from NATO as well as the US for the incident.

However, it was not till recently that the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had communicated the apology to the government of Pakistan which subsequently led to the re-opening of the NATO supply routes. The US has agreed to release a total of $ 1.1 billion
to the military of Pakistan for the purpose of reimbursing Pakistan for the costs that have been incurred in relation to the counter insurgency operations taking place in the country.

The US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton commented on the meeting in the following manner, “We are both encouraged that we have been able to put the recent difficulties behind us so we can focus on the many challenges ahead. We also discussed economic support
and the goal of moving towards more trade then aid as part of our economic relationship. I have no reason to believe that it will not continue to raise hard questions for us both, but it is something I think is in the interests of the United States as well
as Pakistan.”

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=28500

Posted by Rabiya Maqbool on Jul 9 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry