US VICE President Joe Biden arrived in Islamabad today for counterterrorism talks with Pakistan’s top leaders and senior military officials, a US official said.
The US wants Pakistan to do more to eradicate Al-Qaeda and Taliban who have carved out sanctuaries in its semi-autonomous northwest tribal belt from where they launch offensives into neighbouring Afghanistan.
“While here, he will meet with President (Asif Ali) Zardari and Prime Minister (Yousuf Raza) Gilani to discuss the US-Pakistan bilateral relationship and how our two countries can work together towards peace and stability in the region,” the official said.
“Vice president Biden will also meet with members of Pakistan’s military leadership to discuss our shared efforts to fight terrorism and extremism.”
Biden arrived in Pakistan from Kabul, where he met President Hamid Karzai in talks that included discussing the presence of US troops serving in Afghanistan as part of an international force of some 140,000.
US officials have sought to reassure Islamabad that they seek a strategic relationship with Pakistan, and have promised billions of dollars in non-military aid to help the nuclear nation develop its fragile economy to match its huge military aid package.
The US has also given millions of dollars of assistance to help Pakistan’s relief effort in the wake of last summer’s devastating floods.
Pakistan won US praise after it mounted an offensive against homegrown Taliban extremists in the South Waziristan region in late 2009.
But a White House report to Congress in October stated bluntly that Pakistan had not confronted Afghanistan’s Taliban, in what experts see as a bid by Islamabad to preserve influence over its northern neighbour.
Zardari is also due to visit the US this week, officials in Islamabad have said, in the wake of a major political crisis that has weakened his government.
Zardari is scheduled to attend the memorial of Richard Holbrooke, who was the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan until his sudden death last month, and meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, they said.
