Pakistan and the United States wrapped up two days of high-level talks on Thursday, with a raft of economic development initiatives, an agreement to hasten deliveries of military hardware and a promise to put their often mistrustful relationship on a new footing.
In a communiqué issued after the talks, the countries informed they would “redouble their efforts to deal effectively with terrorism” and would work together for “peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
Administration officials said Pakistan was likely to get swifter delivery of F-16 fighter jets, naval frigates and helicopter gunships, as well as new remotely piloted aircraft for surveillance missions. But the United States was silent about Pakistan’s most heavily advertised proposal: a civil nuclear agreement similar to the one the Bush administration signed with Pakistan’s archrival, India.
Given Pakistan’s history of selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, such an agreement would realistically be 10 or 15 years away, a senior administration official said Thursday. Still, the administration was careful not to dismiss the idea out of hand.
“This is a new day,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in greeting Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. “For the past year, the Obama administration has shown in our words and our deeds a different approach and a different attitude toward Pakistan.”
The “strategic dialogue” was by itself meant to send a message: The administration used the term reserved for the substantive, wide-ranging exchanges it carries on with important countries like China and India. Pakistan and the United States held three such dialogues during the Bush administration.
But last year, Mr. Qureshi asked Mrs. Clinton to upgrade the exchange to the level of foreign minister. On Wednesday, he informed he hoped the two days of higher-level talks would help Pakistan and the United States overcome a history that “did not always enjoy a sunny side.”
Mr. Qureshi said the United States had agreed to put on a fast track some longstanding Pakistani requests for military hardware.
Although Mrs. Clinton deflected a question about civil nuclear cooperation, she said, “We’re committed to helping Pakistan meet its real energy needs.”
Among specific announcements was an agreement for the United States Agency for International Development to help Pakistan upgrade three thermal power plants. The administration said it would try to push through legislation creating so-called reconstruction opportunity zones in Pakistan. And it hopes to set up a fund to stimulate direct foreign investment.
Pakistan’s military campaign against Taliban insurgents in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan has improved the tenor of its relationship with Washington. But success on the battlefield cuts both ways for Pakistan, analysts stated. It gives the country’s government in Islamabad a more credible argument for increased military aid. But it also imposes greater expectations from the United States about Pakistan’s counterinsurgency efforts and military cooperation.
“Yes, you get a pat on the back,” informed Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on Pakistan at the Brookings Institution. “But now that you’ve shown you can do something, you’ve got to do more.”
Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan also remains a subject of intense scrutiny in the United States. The Pakistani authorities cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency to capture the Taliban’s military chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. But some analysts question whether the Pakistanis are rounding up other Taliban leaders, including shadow Afghan governors, simply to make sure that Pakistan has leverage in any future political bargaining in Kabul.
Mr. Qureshi insisted that Pakistan wanted Afghanistan to lead this process. “If they feel we can contribute, if we can help, we’ll be more than willing to help,” he informed. “But we leave it to them.”
On this subject, however, administration officials are more interested in hearing from Pakistan’s chief of army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was part of the delegation. General Kayani recently held talks in Islamabad with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, and the general is viewed as critical to determining the role Pakistan will play.
Of all the raw nerves in the relationship, Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions may be the most sensitive. Islamabad yearns for an agreement with the United States because it would confer legitimacy on Pakistan’s existing program.
But Washington does not formally recognize Pakistan as a nuclear power. The selling of nuclear secrets by the father of its nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and the country’s refusal to allow American investigators to have access to him ensures that this recognition may be a long way off.
“The question is, can you move somewhere toward giving legitimacy to a Pakistani nuclear program?” said Daniel S. Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Is there space between a civil nuclear deal and just saying ‘no’?”
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