Obama seeks new partnership with Pakistan

New strategic deal would promise better trade -- and renewed role in Afghanistan

Published November 30, 2009 8:01AM (EST)

The Washington Post reports that the White House is seeking to bring Pakistan into a new strategic partnership that would increase trade and military cooperation between the two nations.

The newspapers said Monday that President Barack Obama's offer was in a two-page letter this month to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. The letter, delivered by national security adviser James Jones, included a blunt warning that the U.S. would not tolerate support within Pakistan's military and intelligence operations of insurgents fighting in Afghanistan.

The letter, the Post said, also assured the Pakistanis that the U.S. would increase its efforts in Afghanistan and plans no early pullout.

The Post says Pakistan has been the subject of a long strategy review that concluded that a failure in Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons, would be far worse than in Afghanistan.


By Associated Press

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