US, Pakistan say they want broader ties, but US won’t promise nuclear energy deal

Pakistan seeks energy, economic help in US talks

WASHINGTON — Top diplomats from the United States and Pakistan said Wednesday they want much broader ties between the two countries after years of cooperation limited mostly to the joint effort to hunt and contain terrorists.

Launching a two-day, high-level strategic dialogue here, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi vowed to improve ties by expanding the current security focus to include energy, development, education and agriculture. All must be addressed to combat extremists, they said.

A healthy U.S.-Pakistan relationship is considered essential to winning the war on terrorism, but the United States won’t promise a deal for nuclear energy assistance to match one that it has signed with Pakistan’s archrival India.

Dealings between Washington and Islamabad have been frayed by ups and downs for decades, but relations deteriorated noticeably after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as Pakistan came to believe America was bullying it on security matters, and Washington began to question Islamabad’s commitment to defeating the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was a confidant of former U.S. President George W. Bush and was considered a strong ally against terrorism. But his close ties to the United States helped sink his political career at home. The number of Pakistanis who hold negative views of the United States are among the highest in the world, and suspicion about America’s motives and its improving relationship with India run through every strata of Pakistani society.

Clinton acknowledged that “misperceptions and mistrust” have grown between the two countries, and said that overcoming the mutual suspicion requires sustained work across several areas of government.

“This is a new day,” she said.

As they opened the discussions, neither Clinton nor Qureshi outlined specific programs. But Pakistan has put energy, including civilian nuclear power, at the top of its list of priorities.

Despite their pledges to help, U.S. officials have been noncommittal about how they will respond to Pakistan’s desire to be recognized as a nuclear weapons power and forge an atomic energy deal.

U.S. officials have concerns about Pakistan’s record in transferring nuclear technology to states such as Libya and North Korea. And neither Clinton nor special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke would offer any promises ahead of the talks.

Pakistan would like to have a civil nuclear cooperation pact with the United States similar to the one its nuclear rival India has. Such a deal likely would require at least tacit acknowledgment that Pakistan, which detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1998, is a legitimate nuclear armed power, something the United States has refused to do.

It also would require approval from Congress, which only reluctantly agreed to the civil nuclear deal with India despite far fewer proliferation concerns. But that has not dampened Pakistan’s eagerness for an agreement, which it believes is critical to dealing with its energy shortages.

The Pentagon’s top leaders credit Pakistan’s ongoing military campaign against Taliban insurgents with helping to improve ties with the United States. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen praised Pakistan’s determination in a campaign that some U.S. officials had worried would sputter.

The Pentagon leaders told Congress they think Pakistan now understands that the Taliban presents an acute threat to its own government.

The praise marks a change from last year, when top U.S. officials regularly complained that Pakistan could have done more to fight militants along its Afghan border.

Opening the wider talks with Clinton, Qureshi said Pakistan remains committed to fighting extremism as “a strategic and moral imperative.” He noted that thousands of Pakistanis — civilians and soldiers — had been killed battling extremists and that Pakistan’s concerns must be respected.

“You are fighting a war whose outcome is critical first and foremost, of course, for the people of Pakistan,” Clinton told the foreign minister. “But it will also have regional and global repercussions, and so strengthening and advancing your security remains a key priority of our relationship.”

At the same time, she stressed that that cooperation must be more than military assistance and must include methods to improve the lives of the Pakistani people so they will not be attracted to extremist ideologies. Among those are projects to ease Pakistan’s crippling energy shortages, shore up its battered economy and improve development aid.

Clinton and Qureshi are heading their respective delegations, which also include top military, finance, agriculture and development officials.