WASHINGTON: The United States agreed on Wednesday to provide $125 million for energy development in Pakistan and will also assist in thermal power projects.
The decision, announced at a joint press briefing, followed a day-long meeting between US and Pakistani delegations to their first ministerial level strategic dialogue.
At the briefing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the $125 million pledge, support for Pakistan’s thermal power projects and also assistance for the Benazir income support programme.
But she dodged a question about Pakistan’s request for nuclear power plants, indicating that so far the United States wants to confine itself to supporting non-nuclear sources of energy.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who otherwise appeared eager to respond to all the questions – even those posed to Mrs Clinton –, did not answer this issue either.
Mr Qureshi told the briefing that the Americans also have agreed to “fast track” military hardware and equipment meant for Pakistan but withheld “for months and years”.
Secretary Clinton also stood her ground on the US position that Washington could not intervene in Pakistan’s relations with India, although it will continue to keep encouraging both to improve their relations.
In a 56-page document Pakistan had submitted before the talks, Islamabad had also sought US help to start the composite dialogue process with India.
While noting that it was in the interests of both India and Pakistan to talk to each other and such a dialogue will also improve the security situation in South Asia, Secretary Clinton said that the US “cannot influence the foreign policy of Pakistan or the foreign policy of India”.
The foreign minister said Pakistan had no problem with America’s relations with India but insisted that “these relations should not be at the cost of Pakistan”.
The most significant aspect of the briefing was the body language of the two leaders who appeared to have retained the positive posture they had in the morning when they briefed the media before the talks.
Both leaders insisted that the US and Pakistan had a desire to uplift their ties to the level of “productive partnership”, a phrase coined by the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke.
Secretary Clinton noted that US-Pakistan relations have had both positive and not so-positive phases and that “there can be disagreements in the future too” but she stressed that both remained committed to building up their ties.
“We do not want anything to disrupt our desire to move this relationship to a partnership,” she said.
She said the US wanted to move beyond a government-to-government relationship and was keen to involve the private sector as well. But she acknowledged that private sectors needed incentives to invest in Pakistan.
“We have work to do … in education, healthcare, agriculture, IT and telemedicine,” said Mrs Clinton while underlining the sectors where the two countries could cooperate with each other.
Mr Qureshi noted that during his visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday he noticed that “the mood was completely different” from his previous visits.
Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/19-us-to-provide-%24125m-for-energy%2C-power-plans-530-hh-04
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