Washington, October 24 (IANS) As Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif headed for a gathering with President Barack Obama, the U.S. put terrorism focussed for their talks on a way to strengthen “obviously a very vital relationship”.
Joe Biden the Vice President set the tone for the discussions at Obama’s Oval Office in the afternoon with a decision to along “continue to combat terrorism and violent extremism” at a breakfast meeting Wednesday with Sharif at his naval Observatory residence.
Biden “reaffirmed to the Prime Minister that together we should continue to combat terrorism and violent extremism and work to strengthen regional and world security,” said the White House readout of the meeting.
He also “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to strengthening bilateral ties in support of a robust, democratic, prosperous Pakistan” as the 2 “discussed several of the economic and development challenges that Pakistan faces” and therefore the steps Sharif is taking to address them.
Unlike last month’s meeting with Manmohan Singh Indian Prime Minister , Obama isn’t hosting any meal for Sharif and would meet him in the Oval Office when having lunch with his own vice chairman, who would also be a part of the afternoon session.
As the Oval Office session clearly focused on terrorism,Sharif has very little hope of obtaining a lot of on his wish list — U.S. mediation on Kashmir, nuclear parity with India and an finish to drone strikes.
In fact, backing India’s description of Pakistan because the “epicenter of terrorism”, an analyst has advised that “It certainly would be helpful for the Obama administration to press Sharif hard on his country’s support for many terrorist teams.”
These include Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), “the group behind the Mumbai massacre of 2008” that according to Jeffrey Goldberg.
Thus Sharif’s plea to finish drone strikes in Pakistan that he says “has become a serious pain in our bilateral relationship” is additionally unlikely to create much headway.
Shortly when Sharif created a plea Tuesday for an finish to drone strikes, career them “a continual violation of our territorial integrity,” the White House press secretary Jay Carney put up a vigorous defence of the strikes.