Two US generals met with Pakistan’s army chief on Wednesday in a high-stakes meeting aimed at nudging Islamabad to resume a cooperative relationship with the United States.
It was the first formal discussion among top military commanders since US airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at Afghan border outposts in a hotly disputed attack in November.
Tensions have eased in recent weeks, following outreach by the Obama administration. President Obama made a personal overture toward normalizing what he called the sometimes strained alliance Tuesday, during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Seoul, where both leaders were attending an international summit on nuclear security.
The Nov. 26 border airstrikes intensified already furious public opposition to any continued Pakistani support for the US-led effort to defeat a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s powerful army chief of staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, convened talks in the city of Rawalpindi with General James Mattis, who oversees US military operations in the region, and General John Allen, commander of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.
Although no agenda was released, a chief concern of the US military is whether Pakistan will once again allow NATO supply convoys to use a route that crosses its border to transport supplies into Afghanistan.
In retaliation for the airstrikes – which the United States said were accidental but Pakistan called deliberate – Pakistan not only shut down that crucial transit route but also banished US personnel from an air base used in the CIA’s drone campaign against Al Qaeda and other militants in the country’s northwestern tribal region.
A military official here who spoke on the condition of anonymity characterized the visit by Mattis and Allen as very important and said the discussion would involve “how to get back to complete normal relations.’’
Another official with knowledge of the talks said they included improving cross-border cooperation between the two militaries.
The meeting comes in the midst of a Pakistani parliamentary debate meant to reset the terms of Islamabad’s relationship with Washington. The United States has relied to varying degrees on its alliance with Pakistan since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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