Hillary Clinton goes to Pakistan
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Clinton meets the Pakistani president
- Clinton will lay out in a "no-kidding" way what the U.S. expects, says one official
- The secretary will warn that U.S. aid is in jeopardy unless Pakistan makes progress
- Clinton said recently that a strong U.S.-Pakistan relationship "is in our national interests"
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Pakistani president on Friday as part of a push to repair the relationship with Islamabad in the wake of a U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is accompanying Clinton for what one senior State Department official said would be a "sober" set of talks about the need for Pakistan to root out terrorists in its country.
Clinton asked Mullen to come with her so they could have one meeting where they are delivering the same message at the same time and gauging Pakistani's reaction together, a senior administration official said.
"This remains a consequential relationship essential to America's national security," said the administration official.
The administration official said they "have gotten a lot of what we asked for."
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"We've always wanted more. We've always thought more was in their interests. I think from their perspective they have done a lot," the official said.
The meeting between Clinton and President Asif Ali Zardari was behind closed doors.
Earlier, officials had said Gen. Pervaiz Kayani and Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha, the Pakistani army chief and the head of the nation's intelligence agency, respectively, would also attend.
"This remains a consequential relationship essential to America's national security," the administration official said.
The Pakistanis "are on thin ice," a different senior official said. Neither would speak on the record because the trip had not been officially announced.
Specifically, Clinton will tell the Pakistanis the United States is looking for Pakistan to demonstrate a willingness to go after senior al Qaeda targets, take action against factories producing improvised explosive devices for use against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and support Taliban reconciliation, the officials told CNN.
Contrary to previous visits in which Clinton unveiled detailed initiatives on future U.S. assistance to Pakistan, officials said the secretary will warn that U.S. aid is in jeopardy unless Pakistan makes progress on several key U.S. points, and will lay out certain benchmarks for the Pakistani government to meet.
"She is going to lay out in a 'no-kidding' way the results and degrees of progress that need to be met on each of these areas to constitute the relationship getting back on track," one official said.
Clinton had been expected to visit Pakistan earlier this month for more fulsome talks, as part of the two countries "strategic dialogue" that covers more than a dozen areas of cooperation between Washington and Islamabad. But she postponed her visit after the raid on bin Laden's compound by U.S. Navy SEALs.
The revelation that the al Qaeda leader was living in plain sight for years amongst Pakistani military installations, and Pakistan's humiliation at the U.S. decision to undertake the raid without telling them, has thrown the relationship into one of its worst points in history, and officials say cooperation between the two sides has slowed significantly.
Officials said Clinton felt it was important not to let the mistrust on both sides fester and decided to make a short visit to deliver a two-fold message: Pakistan is on thin ice with its U.S. ally, but the relationship between the two sides is too important to abandon.
"The fact of the matter is that the international community has been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than any place else in the world. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation," Clinton told reporters in Paris earlier this week. "I believe strongly it is in our national security interests to have a comprehensive, long-term partnership with the government and people of Pakistan."
Clinton added that the United States has "across the board" expectations of what they want the Pakistan government to meet. Last week, Marc Grossman, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, traveled to Islamabad, where he delivered the set of demands, emphasizing the United States needed actions, not words from Pakistan, according to a senior official briefed on the talks. The official was not authorized to speak on the record.
During several meetings with Zardari, Kayani and Pasha, Grossman said the United States was looking for more cooperation from Pakistan in fighting extremism. The meetings were described by a senior official briefed on the talks as "tough, but fruitful." The talks followed a visit a few days earlier by Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who delivered a similarly tough message
During the meetings with Grossman, the senior U.S. official said, Kayani voiced strong concern about the continuation of U.S. drone strikes against targets inside Pakistan, but he and other members of the Pakistani leadership expressed a willingness to press al Qaeda, conduct joint operations and support reconciliation.
Officials point to enough progress since Grossman's visit, including the fact Pakistan returned the tail of a helicopter that was left behind after the raid, for Clinton to make the trip to Pakistan.
But they say the relationship between the two countries needs serious repairing before cooperation on areas important to Pakistan can continue. Two weeks ago, the Pakistanis asked the United States to reduce the number of military trainers in Pakistan. A Pentagon spokesman said this week the U.S. has begun to comply and is removing some of the more than 200 personnel who are posted there.
"There is sufficient agreement that we have to find a way forward," one official said. "But there are a few things that we need to get right as a foundation for the rest of it."
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