Lahore: Pakistan wants to rebuild ties with the United States despite ongoing retaliation over deadly NATO airstrikes on its troops along the Afghan border, the country's prime minister said on Monday, stressing that he believes "it won't take long" to achieve a new relationship with its uneasy ally.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's remarks indicate that Pakistan is looking for a way to restore some normalcy to ties with Washington following the Nov. 26 airstrikes by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, but wants to leverage the situation to try and reset the relationship in ways more beneficial to Pakistan.
In an interview, Gilani also said the country remained committed to working with Afghanistan to bring insurgent leaders - many of whom are believed to be on Pakistani soil and to enjoy close relations with Islamabad's security forces - into talks with the government and allow the US to begin withdrawing its troops as it is committed to doing.
"I think we have evolved some mechanisms, and we are ready to cooperate," he said, referring to meetings with Afghanistan's military and intelligence chiefs on a framework for talks. "We are committed (to reconciliation), despite that we are not attending" the conference on Afghanistan, he said.
That may offer some reassurance to international leaders meeting in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future of Afghanistan.
Islamabad boycotted the talks because of the airstrikes along the Pakistan-Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani troops. The decision disappointed Afghan and Western leaders, who realize the vital role Pakistan has in any future stability in neighboring Afghanistan even as they complain that it tolerates, or even supports, insurgents along the border.
Pakistan refused pleas by Afghan and US leaders to attend the Bonn conference. Gilani said he did not regret skipping the meeting, saying "since the soil of Afghanistan was used against Pakistan in the NATO raids, there was a tremendous protest in my country and people putting pressure that we not attend."
Speaking in Germany, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers tragic and reiterated a pledge for a thorough investigation. "No one is more interested than the United States in getting to the bottom of what happened in the border incident," she said.
President Barack Obama called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday to offer his condolences. No one from either NATO or the US has formally apologized, but they have disputed comments by Pakistan's army that the act was a deliberate act of aggression.
As well as boycotting the Bonn talks, Pakistan retaliated by blocking its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies and giving the US 15 days to vacate Shamsi air base, which has been used by American drones to strike militants along the Afghan border. US Ambassador Cameron Munter said in a local TV interview that Washington was doing its best to comply with Pakistan's demand to leave the air base.
Gilani said new ties being negotiated with the US would ensure that the two countries "respected each other's red lines" regarding sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border. While he gave few details, he made it clear he thought this was both desirable and possible.
"We really want to have good relations with the US based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters," he said in an interview at his residence. "I think that is doable. I think that it won't take long."
The civilian government is in many respects subservient to the army in Pakistan, which formulates Afghan policy. Gilani is unlikely to be saying anything that doesn't broadly reflect the thinking of the army, however. This year has a seen a succession of crisis in Pakistan-US ties that have been patched up, albeit at a cost of dwindling trust and expectations on both sides.
While no one in Washington underestimates the difficulties in dealing with Pakistan, most officials there also call for continued engagement. As well as holding a major key to future Afghan peace, Pakistan has nuclear weapons and a thriving Islamist militant insurgency of its own that is giving support to al-Qaida operatives in the country.
Pakistan, despite the fiercely anti-American rhetoric of its people, many of its lawmakers and - increasingly after the NATO strike - its army, relies on Washington for military and civilian aid to maintain some parity with its regional foe India, as well as diplomatic legitimacy.
In Gilani's office, along with photos of his children, there are two pictures of the prime minister with President George W. Bush in Washington, along with a signed note from Bush in 2008 pledging continued support for Gilani's efforts to bring stability to the country and thanks for "the fine-looking gun" he had brought him as a gift.
Washington and Islamabad have given differing accounts of what led to the airstrikes on the Pakistani army posts last month, in what is at least the third such incident along the porous and poorly defined border since 2008.
US officials have said the incident occurred when a joint US and Afghan patrol requested air support after coming under fire. The US checked with the Pakistan military to see if there were friendly troops in the area and were told there were not, they said.
Pakistan has said the coordinates given by the Americans were wrong - an allegation denied by US defense officials.
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