19 March 2010

Clinton to Co-Chair Strategic Dialogue with Pakistan

First ministerial-level dialogue opens in Washington March 24

 

Ambassador Holbrook, left, pictured with Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani, says the bilateral talks will be intense and serious.

Ambassador Holbrook, left, pictured with Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani, says the bilateral talks will be intense and serious.

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington — Ministerial-level strategic talks between the United States and Pakistan will open in Washington March 24.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke anticipates a broad agenda for the discussions, which he said will mark “a major intensification” in the U.S. partnership with Pakistan.

“To me, a strategic dialogue means that we talk about our basic core objectives,” Holbrooke told reporters March 19 in Washington. The United States and Pakistan are working together to combat extremist groups including al-Qaida; empower Afghanistan so it can become self-reliant; and strengthen Pakistan’s security, democratic institutions, and economic development, including helping the country address its energy and water problems.

The strategic dialogue was launched in 2006, but with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heading the American delegation, the March 24 meeting will be the first time the discussions are conducted at the ministerial level. Holbrooke said Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and high-level representatives from other sections of the Obama administration will also be participating, along with the “extremely high-caliber delegation which Pakistan is sending,” led by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

According to a March 18 State Department press notice, the delegations will discuss economic development, water and energy, education, foreign policy, communications and public diplomacy, agriculture, and security.

“This is an intense and serious dialogue bilaterally between the U.S. and Pakistan,” Holbrooke said. “We’re going to listen carefully to whatever the Pakistanis say.”

The ambassador said he expects working groups to be established to deal with separate bilateral issues. “We want to move into operational things in such areas as water, energy and other issues. And that’s what we’ll do,” he said.

Asked about the delivery of U.S. assistance under the 2009 Kerry-Lugar Act, Holbrooke said the Obama administration is “looking for every way to accelerate the obligations and the disbursement,” acknowledging that the money is not “moving as fast as we’d like it to.” Congress approved $7.5 billion in nonmilitary aid for Pakistan under the Kerry-Lugar Act. The funds are released under congressional procedures that can be slow and complex.

“We are doing more. We will announce more. We want to do as much as the Congress will support,” he said. “This is hard for people to understand in other parts of the world. But Congress writes the checks.”

Holbrooke also said both the United States and Pakistan have made huge advances in overcoming what both sides have called a “trust deficit” that has hampered the bilateral relationship in the past. Holbrooke also stressed that the Obama administration’s support for Pakistan is in the United States’ interest as well.

“Everyone’s aware of the popular public-opinion polls, and we think that our support for Pakistan deserves more recognition among the people,” he said. “I think we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in the last year.”