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Summary President Barack Obama said Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama has said the United States and Pakistan are making diligent progress on reopening a Nato supply line into Afghanistan.The two sides have failed to reach agreement on supply routes into Afghanistan, which Pakistan closed off after a US air strike killed several troops.Ending the summit of Nato leaders in Chicago, Obama said that Pakistan had to be part of the solution in Afghanistan.Obama told reporters at the close of the summit that he knew beforehand that there would be no deal on the supply routes now.President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can get worked through, Obama said. Were actually making diligent progress on it.Zardari also met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday and made a beeline across a meeting hall to grasp her hand again on Monday morning. The State Department said Clinton and Zardari discussed the importance of reopening the NATO supply lines, and of cooperating to fight terrorist threats.The transit route issue was a distraction and an embarrassment for the United States at the summit, and Obamas cool arms length treatment of Zardari made it look even worse for the Pakistani president.Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan, and it is in our national interests to see a Pakistan that is democratic, that is prosperous and that is stable, Obama said.The quarrel over supply routes is intertwined with several other disputes, including Pakistans opposition to U.S. drone strikes against terrorist targets inside its borders.In addition to closing the border crossings in response to the November attack, Pakistan ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi air base, which the U.S. was using to launch drone strikes at al-Qaida and Taliban militants.The top allied commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, has tried to cast the supply route problem in the best possible light, while acknowledging that hed like to see the border crossings reopened as soon as possible. Allen said Sunday that by some measure, war stocks are higher now than when the crossings were closed.That is thanks to an increased and much more costly use of alternative routes, including a network of northern routes that connect Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia and the Caucasus. And they combine sea, rail and truck transport and are more costly than crossing Pakistan by land.
