Hillary Clinton pledges US ‘commitment’ to Pakistan

28 May BBC

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed Washington’s “strong commitment” to relations with Pakistan.

She was speaking as she arrived in Islamabad on a previously unannounced visit aimed at soothing tensions between the two countries.

It is the first such high-level visit to Pakistan since the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden on 2 May.

The American special forces raid on Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad prompted protests from Islamabad.

Mrs Clinton’s visit comes a day after the US announced it was withdrawing some of its troops from Pakistan, at Islamabad’s request.

In what correspondents say was perhaps an attempt to smooth ruffled Pakistani feathers over the killing, Mrs Clinton acknowledged the ‘’sacrifices made every single day by the men and women Pakistan’s military and its citizens”.

US officials say that Mr Clinton’s visit had been planned for about two weeks, but Washington was waiting for the right time “for this critical conversation”.

The ground was prepared by Senator John Kerry and the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman. The decision to visit was taken on Wednesday but kept under wraps for security reasons.

The BBC’s Kim Ghattas - who is travelling with Mrs Clinton - says that she arrived in Pakistan under intense security, her 20-car armoured motorcade racing through the city to the presidential palace and helicopters flying overhead.

Officials say that she has come to Pakistan to gauge Islamabad’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism.

They say that it would not have been taken place if there was not a sense that “we could build on some of the signs that we have been receiving”.

Relations between US and Pakistan are always complex and fragile but they are particularly volatile at the moment.

Our correspondent says that Mrs Clinton has met all of Pakistan’s top officials several times before and is usually adept at smiley conversation for the cameras. But this time she sat fairly stone-faced at the start of her meeting with Pakistan’s president, prime minister, foreign secretary and army chief.

The secretary of state is accompanied by chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.

They are expected to demand more co-operation from Pakistan in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Some in Washington believe that Pakistani intelligence works closely with violent extremist groups. Suspicion is rife that some in Pakistan knew of Osama Bin Laden’s hiding place all along.

Meanwhile, US media reports say that Pakistan will allow the CIA to examine Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.

A forensics team is expected to arrive within days along with sophisticated equipment to find material that may be embedded behind walls, inside safes or buried underground.