SEOUL (Reuters) - The White House made clear on Monday that President Barack Obama would seek to put strained relations with Pakistan on a more even footing when he meets Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani at the end of a nuclear security summit in Seoul.
The meeting on Tuesday will be the highest-level contact between the uneasy allies since U.S. commandos killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani military town in May last year, a raid Pakistan called a violation of its sovereignty.
Ties plunged to a new low in November when aircraft from NATO’s Afghanistan force mistakenly attacked two Pakistani border posts and killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
“There obviously has been a fairly turbulent period in U.S.-Pakistan relations over the course of the last several months,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Seoul on Monday.
“We’ll want to address the state of the relationship.”
He said Obama would assure Gilani of “our continued interest in counter-terrorism cooperation” with Pakistan and stress shared interests in stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan.
The Pakistani leader would bring up a parliamentary review that has been drawing up recommendations on how to proceed on ties with Washington, Rhodes said.
Pakistan’s cooperation is considered critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan before most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014. Pakistan has strong traditional links with the Afghan Taliban and other militant groups. More
