Clinton Praises 'Valuable' Talks
Secretary Pledges to Meet Regularly With Pakistani, Afghan Counterparts

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 2009

The United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan will begin regular, trilateral meetings after sessions held among the three nations here this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced yesterday.

Talks over the past three days "would have been valuable even if they had simply been bilateral," Clinton said in remarks with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. But the meetings were "especially meaningful" because "we have all been working together," she said, adding that the governments will come together again in late April or early May.

The unprecedented trilateral talks were part of a U.S. effort to encourage cooperation between the neighboring governments over terrorist inroads in both countries. They came as the Obama administration is conducting a strategic review of the foundering Afghan war effort and of its policies toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Delegations from both countries included defense and intelligence ministers, as well as diplomatic chiefs.

"Our basic purpose was to exchange views on the strategic issues now being reviewed in our policy review by the Obama administration," Clinton said. "That goal has been amply fulfilled." No specific agreements were announced.

President Obama's budget released yesterday included an unspecified amount of military and civilian aid for Pakistan. Pakistan has asked for drone aircraft, helicopters and other equipment. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Predator drone "hasn't come up in my talks." But Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that in general "it's very important that we help resource" the Pakistani military "for a long time" in the future.

Both Spanta and Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak yesterday praised the sessions and expressed optimism that U.S., NATO and Afghan forces would regain the upper hand over Taliban extremists in Afghanistan. Wardak said he agreed with plans to double the size of the Afghan army but warned against "redefining success" in the war by lowering expectations, as some administration officials have suggested.

"Comments like 'lowering expectations' and 'achieving clear and attainable objectives' create worry in the minds of Afghans, based on the experience of the '90s," Wardak said in a speech to the Center for a New American Security.

Although the United States aided mujaheddin fighters who expelled occupying forces from the Soviet Union in 1989, Washington largely ignored Afghanistan as the Taliban came to power in the subsequent decade. The Bush administration ejected the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks, which were planned in Afghanistan, but then quickly turned its attention to Iraq. Obama has called Afghanistan the "center" of the U.S. struggle against violent Islamic extremists but has also said the United States should limit its objectives there to preventing its becoming a terrorist launching pad again.