Washington: America's relationship with
Pakistan is very complicated, but a very important one as
it helps in maintaining Washington's national security
interest, the White House said on Wednesday.
"I can say that our relationship with Pakistan is
extremely important. It is also complicated. And we have made
that clear and been quite candid about that for a long time,"
the White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, told reporters at
his daily news conference.
"It is important to remember that the relationship is
important because it helps our national security interest to
maintain it. Pakistan has worked with us to go after terrorism
and terrorists.
More terrorists have been killed on Pakistani soil
than in any other country," he said.
"So we continue to work with the Pakistanis.
Sometimes we have difficult issues to work through
with them, but it remains an important relationship," Carney
said, but refused to respond to specific questions about leak
of intelligence information by Pakistan shared by the US or
the arrest of CIA informants by Pakistani officials.
"Without addressing that specific ranking, I would
say that we acknowledge that it is a complicated relationship,
and I think that's pretty candid.
I think we have also made clear that the cooperation
we do get is vital and essential to our war against terrorism
and terrorists," he said.
The US will continue that relationship for precisely
that reason and when Washington have issues, it deals with
them.
"Obviously, in the wake of the successful mission
against Osama bin Laden, we have reached out and engaged with
the Pakistani government and our counterparts in Pakistan at
many levels, precisely because this relationship is so
important," he said.
The Administration, he said is working constantly to
improve the relationship, to improve the cooperation with
Pakistan.
"Whatever number you pick on the scale of
cooperation, that number represents significant success in
combating terrorism and eliminating terrorists who threaten
Pakistan, terrorists who threaten the United States and
threaten our allies," he said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, June 16, 2011, 14:53