Obama hints at closer cooperation with Pakistan

WASHINGTON :US president-elect Barack Obama has expressed his resolve to forge a closer US cooperation with Pakistan towards dealing with the problem of violent extremism along Pak-Afghan border as part of a regional approach that his administration intends to pursue after taking charge next week.

Interacting with the media upon vice president-elect Joseph Biden’s return from a visit to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Obama described al Qaeda as number one threat for the United States.

“As Joe (Biden) indicated, we have to take a regional approach, we are not going to solve the problem just in Afghanistan, we are going to have to address issues in Pakistan as well,” said Obama, who will take oath as US president on Tuesday (January 20).

Answering a question, he said “(Osama) Bin Laden and al Qaeda are our number one threat when it comes to American security.”

“And this administration, working in concert with Congress, with Republicans, and with the American people, we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that they cannot create safe havens they can (use to) attack America. That is the bottom line,” the president-elect added.

Obama would not elaborate his remarks, saying the US has one president at a time, but said he would spell out particulars of his administration’s policy toward the region immediately after assuming his office.

Biden was confident of prospects of progress in the region. “I have been encouraged by the trip, the assets we have in place, the progress and cooperation that is incrementally occurring, I have come more encouraged, rather than less encouraged. I think you will have the assets to increase the prospects of success.”

Biden said he undertook the visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq at the behest of the president-elect “with the express purpose of assessing the situation on gound, to make a determination what the situation was, what the problems were,” and report back to Obama for way forward.

The vice-president elect, who met with top political leaders in Islamabad including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as well as senior military leaders, acknowledged the Pakistan’s importance vis-a-vis peace and security efforts, saying “Pakistan’s position on Afghanistan is going to affect our ability to succeed in Afghanistan.”

He underlined the need for building political institutions in all three countries and said focus on personalities is not the answer to problems.

“There is a need to build institutions, political institutions that are sustainable in each of the three countries. Personalities - focusing on personalities - is not the key to success in any of one of the three countries. And, we conveyed that notion to each of the countries in question. And they all had slightly different and significant different problems.”

Speaking in a broader perspective, he said success in each of the countries affects the prospects of success in that region.

Biden also told newsmen that the bipartisan delegation “went to listen, not to convey policy, (since) as the president-elect has stated, we have one president at a time.”

“And so, I made it very clear in speaking with every leader literally we met with in each of the three countries, military as well as civilian, I made it absolutely clear that I was not there to make policy, I was there to listen but to listen and occasionally express concern about some of their actions or lack of actions.”

On Afghanistan, he said, there is going to be a ‘significant shift’ in the form of 35000 troops deployment in the insurgency-hit country, where the situation has deteriorated over the several years.

“Things are going to get tougher in Afghanistan before they get better.” He described the Congressional delegation’s visit to the region as ‘very worthwhile’ while Obama said the lawmakers’ recommendations will be of great help to him.

“The recommendations that you’re going to be delivering to me are going to be of enormous help in making sure that we do what is my No. 1 task as president elect and as president, and that is to keep the American people safe and to make sure that when we deploy our military, that we do so with a clear sense of mission and with strong support from the American people,” Obama stated.