Islamabad, March 24: Pakistan has given a wish list to Washington ahead of high-level meetings, pushing for talks on nuclear cooperation as well as pilotless drones and helicopters, said U.S. and Pakistani officials on Tuesday.
Islamabad’s 56-page document, set to be discussed in talks in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, also outlines other priorities such as water and electricity requirements for energy-starved Pakistan as it struggles with power cuts.
Speaking after talks with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said his country’s civilian government and the military had a “very clear plan” for what needed to be done.
“We articulated that collectively, you know, what the Pakistani priorities are,” said Qureshi, who met Senator John Kerry, one of the authors of landmark legislation last year for a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan.
While not a separate item on the agenda, Pakistani officials made clear they wanted the same nuclear cooperation and technology granted to India in an arrangement hammered out over years by the Bush administration.
“We want greater cooperation to meet our future energy needs,” Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Salman Bashir, told reporters later.
“India, Pakistan, we have been in this together in South Asia, in many ways. What is good for India, should be good for Pakistan,” he added.
Pressed on whether this was something the United States also wanted to pursue, U.S. Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke was noncommittal.
“Let’s just see how it develops. We are going to listen with great interest to anything our friends say,” he said at the same briefing with a small group of reporters.
Asked about the civilian nuclear request, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also appeared lukewarm, saying India’s arrangement came after “many, many years” of dialogue.
“I think on the energy issue specifically, there are more immediate steps that can be taken that have to help with the grid, have to help with other sources of energy, to upgrade power plants,” she told Pakistan’s Express TV.
LENGTHY PROCESS
A U.S. official pointed out that discussions on a nuclear deal would also require consensus approval from the 46-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as well as U.S. congressional approval, which had been a lengthy process with the Indians.
Washington is also cautious due to an uproar created by allegations that a disgraced Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, transferred nuclear secrets to Iraq and Iran.
Several agreements are expected to be signed during the two days of talks, including one on roads, water and energy projects, funded mostly by aid agreed by Congress last year.
The major focus, said officials on both sides, was not so much to announce any new aid packages but to create a partnership between two nations whose relations have been marred by decades of mistrust and suspicion.
“We want to take our relationship to a deeper level,” said Clinton.
Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S. fight to topple al Qaeda and to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan where the United States is sending in an additional 30,000 troops to fight the Taliban.
Qureshi said at a function at the Pakistani embassy that he hoped the meetings, chaired by himself and Clinton, would strengthen ties, which have improved in recent months following the arrest by Pakistan of key Afghan Taliban leaders..
“We are ready to deliver,” he said.
RAMPED UP AID
Washington has beefed up its military aid for Pakistan, and the Pentagon announced in January plans to supply 12 unarmed “Shadow” drones to boost Pakistan’s surveillance operations.
The latest request is believed to repeat Pakistani pleas for “shoot-and-kill” drones being used by the United States to target militants, closely held technology that Washington is reluctant to share.
Earlier this year, Washington also approved the delivery of 18 F-16 fighter jets and a thousand laser-guided bomb kits, a U.S. defense official said.
The Pentagon also played down the chance of any big announcement of fresh aid at the end of the talks, which also include Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
“I would not look to this, at the end of it, for there to be some great announcement about any hard items,” Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.
—–Agencies