Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Visits USA Monday Oct 21,2013

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ,accompanied by a high-powered delegation that includes Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani is in Washington on a 4-day official visit to the USA

On Monday Oct 21,2013 met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues

U.S. President Barack Obama and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday Oct 23,2013 pledged cooperation on the security issues that have strained ties between their nations

Obama acknowledged that there will always be some tension between the U.S. and Pakistan, but said he and Mr. Sharif agreed to build a relationship based on mutual respect.

“It’s a challenge. It’s not easy,” he said. “We committed to working together and making sure that rather than this being a source of tension between our two countries, it can be a source of strength.” 

Beyond drones, the other hot-button issues on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting included -

• plans for winding down the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and
• the longstanding tensions between India and Pakistan

The U.S. and Afghanistan are negotiating an agreement to keep some American troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but one unresolved issue which is a deal breaker for the U.S. is whether American military courts maintain legal jurisdiction over the troops.U.S. officials have said the White House is looking to keep fewer than 10,000 troops on the ground after 2014 for counterterrorism and training purposes

Pakistan’s conflict with India over the disputed region of Kashmir was also a central topic of the talks.

Nawaz Sharif feels US intervention will resolve Kashmir issue

According to a media report from London, where Nawaz Sharif made a stopover on his way to Washington to meet President Barack Obama, he said that during his visit to the U.S. in July 1999 amid the Kargil episode, he had made things clear to President Clinton about the need for U.S. intervention. Had the U.S. President spent even 10 per cent of the time on Kashmir that he spent on the Middle East issues, Kashmir could have been resolved, Mr. Sharif was quoted as saying. Mr. Clinton had made a promise then.

The Prime Minister added that even if India did not want such an intervention, world powers should show interest keeping in mind that both countries were nuclear powers. He referred to the arms race and said the situation could get dangerous. There was a need to limit this race and think about these issues.