US must respect Pakistan’s sovereignty: FM Qureshi

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

WASHINGTON: The United States and Pakistan will try this week to get their crisis-prone relationship back on track after the latest US drive to win over hearts and minds faced quick setbacks.

Senior officials from the two nations will on Wednesday open a “strategic dialogue,” an initiative launched by the United States earlier this year to show that it cares about more than just Pakistan’s help in Afghanistan.

But that core cooperation was thrown into doubt last month when Pakistan closed the main land route for Afghan war supplies through the Khyber Pass, incensed after a Nato helicopter killed at least two Pakistani soldiers.

Pakistan reopened the crossing after 11 days once the United States formally apologized for the killings, which officials of the Nato alliance said was an accident caused by the border’s ambiguity.

The chopper incident came just after the United States, conscious of widespread anti-Americanism in Pakistan, mobilized a major humanitarian drive to help victims of the country’s worst-ever floods.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who will represent Pakistan in the talks, praised the aid but said the relationship also suffered “two steps back” with the helicopter attack and relentless US drone strikes aimed at militants.

“We are an ally, not a satellite,” Qureshi said Monday at Harvard University. “We have to protect our borders — you have to respect our sovereignty.”

“You have to realize the political price you pay in Pakistan and that my government pays as your friend from the almost daily drone assaults on our territory,” he said.

“If unmanned drone attacks were not difficult enough for our people to absorb, the recent acts of Nato helicopters in Pakistan, killing Pakistani soldiers, are nothing short of infuriating,” he said.

The three-day talks will culminate Friday in talks between Qureshi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Qureshi said the United States can improve relations by taking up issues on which it has long been hesitant — such as pursuing a free trade deal, discussing civil nuclear cooperation along the lines of a US pact with Pakistan’s rival India, or pressuring India over the disputed Kashmir region.

Most analysts consider such items on Pakistan’s wish-list to be long shots at a time when the public mood in the United States has also soured on Islamabad.

US lawmakers have repeatedly criticized Pakistan, accusing it of playing a double-game by maintaining ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban and of showing ingratitude over US assistance in a time of austerity.

The US Congress last year approved a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar package to build schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions in Pakistan, deciding that development was the best bulwark against Islamic extremism.

A survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in July found that a mere 17 percent of Pakistanis held a favorable view of the United States.

But despite the headlines, Dan Feldman, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he has seen a “very significant change” in Pakistani media portrayals of the United States since the floods.

Feldman voiced hope that the United States can sustain the momentum.

“I think that we can showcase that we are not only there during this crisis, but there for the long-haul, and hopefully that that will change perceptions in Pakistan,” Feldman said.

However, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, a US-based group which works on behalf of war victims, warned not to underestimate the impact of drone strikes.

Christopher Rogers, who spent a year interviewing survivors in Pakistan, said the number of civilian victims was almost certainly more than officials admitted — and that survivors received little to no help.

“The perceived legitimacy of the Pakistani state in conflict areas is key to lasting stability and security,” Rogers said. “Civilian casualties, especially when left unaddressed, do serious harm to these efforts.”