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Summary
The United States pledged to give $125 million for energy development in Pakistan and would also assist in thermal power projects. In a joint press briefing with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Washington after holding strategic dialogue with Pakistani delegation, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton termed strategic sitting conducive not only for Pakistan but for US administration also. She pledged USs assistance to develop agriculture sector in Pakistan besides, extending assistance to maximize export of Pakistan. Pakistani products will now have access to US markets, she noted.At the briefing, Hillary announced to provide $125 million pledge, support for Pakistans thermal power projects and also assistance for the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). However, she parried a question regarding Pakistans request for nuclear power plants, indicating that so far the US wants to confines itself to supporting non-nuclear sources of energy only. Qureshi told the briefing that the Americans also have agreed to fast track military hardware and equipment meant for Pakistan but withheld for months and years. Clinton categorically refused to intervene in Pakistan-India problems, however, added that it would continue to keep encouraging both to improve their bilateral relations.While noting that it was in the interests of both India and Pakistan to talk to each other and such a dialogue will also improve the security situation in South Asia, Secretary Clinton said that the US cannot influence the foreign policy of Pakistan or the foreign policy of India. The FM, while referring to US-India ties insisted that these relations should not be at the cost of Pakistan. Both leaders insisted that the US and Pakistan had a desire for productive partnership, a phrase coined by the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke. Secretary Clinton noted that US-Pakistan relations have had both positive and not so-positive phases and that there can be disagreements in the future too but she stressed that both remained committed to building up their ties. We do not want anything to disrupt our desire to move this relationship to a partnership, she said. She said the US wanted to move beyond a government-to-government relationship and was keen to involve the private sector as well. But she acknowledged that private sectors needed incentives to invest in Pakistan. We have work to do in education, healthcare, agriculture, IT and telemedicine, said Mrs Clinton while underlining the sectors where the two countries could cooperate with each other.
