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Pakistani president meets U.S. envoy

20 May 2011 02:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday met U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Marc Grossman here and they discussed post-Abbotabad-operation developments, according to local media, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The meeting was the followup of U.S. Senator John Kerry’s meeting with the president on May 16, in which the two sides agreed to put the relations back on track and that the relations should go forward on the basis of mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual interest, a statement from the President House said.

Zardari said on the occasion that U.S.-Pakistan relations are very important but mutual respect and national sovereignty will play vital role in the improvement of the mutual relations, local Urdu TV channel SAMAA reported.

Grossman said that very soon U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Pakistan.

Earlier this day, Grossman called on Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt. General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, and they exchanged views on the cooperation in war against terror.

According to reports, Hillary Clinton has said that the United States is striving to have an understanding with Pakistan on way forward that continues anti-terrorist progress in the region and " answers a lot of the concerns that both sides have at this point."

Intensive diplomatic engagement between the two countries is trying to salvage the relationship and overcome tensions arising from the U.S. operation that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in northwest Pakistan’s city of Abbottabad on May 2.