Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday asked Leon E. Panetta, the chief of U. S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to share the American strategy with Pakistan, official said.
U.S. President Barack Obama is set to announce shortly the new Afghan strategy, which will also include deployment more U.S. troops as well as an exit strategy.
There are over 60,000 Americans in Afghanistan and the top U.S. commander has requested for 40,000 more troops. Pakistan is worried that the U.S. troops surge will expand war and Taliban will cross into the country.
The prime minister emphasized that the U.S. must fully share the contours of its road map towards Afghanistan and ensures incorporation of Pakistan's input in it, a statement from the Prime Minister office said.
The CIA chief in meeting with Prime Minister Gilani discussed the U.S. review of its new policy on Afghanistan.
Gilani underscored that the U.S. policy towards Afghanistan must take into account Pakistan's concerns relating to the possible surge of the U.S. and ISAF forces in Afghanistan which may entail negative implications for the situation in Balochistan.
He stressed that the new Afghan policy of U.S. government should not disturb the regional balance in South Asia.
The prime minister said that it was imperative to remove misgivings, build trust and seek to align the respective strategic concepts of both Pakistan and the U.S. to steadfastly move forward in the strategic partnership between the two countries.
He underlined the need for close coordination between the intelligence agencies of both sides to effectively counter the prevalent misperceptions in the relationship.
The CIA chief assured the prime minister that U.S. is fully conscious of Pakistan's pivotal role in the war against terrorism and in the restoration of stability in Afghanistan, the statement said.
The United States considers Pakistan a strategic partner with whom it wants to build a long term and sustained relationship even beyond the cooperation in countering the militancy and extremism.
He agreed with the prime minister that operational functioning between the two militaries and intelligence agencies is the need of the hour for eliminating the threat of terrorism.
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