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US looking to turn the page on ties with Pak in 2012
After a tumultuous year, which all but ruptured its relations with Pakistan for good, the United States hopes to turn the page with Islamabad in the New Year.
“Obviously, what we want to do is turn the page, redouble our efforts to cooperate against the threats that we share, and to support a strong, prosperous, democratic Pakistan in an increasingly stable, peaceful, prosperous, democratic region,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Conceding that it has been “a difficult and complex year in the US-Pakistani relationship” in 2011, Nuland said the message “needs to be conveyed strongly in Pakistan by Americans and by Pakistanis that we need each other and that we have a lot of work still to do, to build the kind of neighbourhood there that is in our mutual interests”.
“We put a huge amount of US taxpayer money every year into education programmes in Pakistan, micro-lending programs, flood relief, all kinds of economic opportunity programs because we believe a strong Pakistan is in our interest,” she said.
Nuland’s comments came even as the fallout from the NATO airstrike last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers remains unresolved. Independent analysts remain sceptical about a healthy turnaround in the US-Pakistan relationship in the coming year.
South Asia specialist and former White House official Bruce Riedel listed the various issues over which the ties unravelled during 2010, remarking: “And the bad news is there’s no floor in sight.” “The drone wars, the outing of two CIA chiefs of station by the Pakistani intelligence, the death of Osama bin Laden and now a scandal called Memogate about US-Pakistan relations which threatens to bring down the Zardari government,” Riedel told NPR New, point out how each of these incidents have led to “a greater breach” and “a deeper mistrust” between the two countries.
“At the end of 2011, the relationship is hanging by a thread. At this point, 2012 doesn’t look much brighter,” commented NPR’s Jackie Northam. At the State Department briefing, Nuland indirectly rejected a reported comment by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that propping up “tailor-made” democracies in the Middle East could end up in failure.
Without directly taking on Zardari’s comments made in Larkana on the occasion of the death anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto, Nuland said: “I don’t think anybody should question that these are grassroots, indigenous movements by people who have long wanted more freedom than their government allowed, have wanted what Pakistanis have, which is the right to elect their Government.”
After a tumultuous year, which all but ruptured its relations with Pakistan for good, the United States hopes to turn the page with Islamabad in the New Year.
“Obviously, what we want to do is turn the page, redouble our efforts to cooperate against the threats that we share, and to support a strong, prosperous, democratic Pakistan in an increasingly stable, peaceful, prosperous, democratic region,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.
Conceding that it has been “a difficult and complex year in the US-Pakistani relationship” in 2011, Nuland said the message “needs to be conveyed strongly in Pakistan by Americans and by Pakistanis that we need each other and that we have a lot of work still to do, to build the kind of neighbourhood there that is in our mutual interests”.
“We put a huge amount of US taxpayer money every year into education programmes in Pakistan, micro-lending programs, flood relief, all kinds of economic opportunity programs because we believe a strong Pakistan is in our interest,” she said.
Nuland’s comments came even as the fallout from the NATO airstrike last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers remains unresolved. Independent analysts remain sceptical about a healthy turnaround in the US-Pakistan relationship in the coming year.
South Asia specialist and former White House official Bruce Riedel listed the various issues over which the ties unravelled during 2010, remarking: “And the bad news is there’s no floor in sight.” “The drone wars, the outing of two CIA chiefs of station by the Pakistani intelligence, the death of Osama bin Laden and now a scandal called Memogate about US-Pakistan relations which threatens to bring down the Zardari government,” Riedel told NPR New, point out how each of these incidents have led to “a greater breach” and “a deeper mistrust” between the two countries.
“At the end of 2011, the relationship is hanging by a thread. At this point, 2012 doesn’t look much brighter,” commented NPR’s Jackie Northam. At the State Department briefing, Nuland indirectly rejected a reported comment by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that propping up “tailor-made” democracies in the Middle East could end up in failure.
Without directly taking on Zardari’s comments made in Larkana on the occasion of the death anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto, Nuland said: “I don’t think anybody should question that these are grassroots, indigenous movements by people who have long wanted more freedom than their government allowed, have wanted what Pakistanis have, which is the right to elect their Government.”
