ISLAMABAD — Like an anxious matchmaker nudging a nervous couple together, the Obama administration has persuaded Afghanistan and Pakistan to take their first tangible step toward bilateral cooperation — a trade agreement that will facilitate the ground shipment of goods between and through the two countries.
The accord has been under negotiation for years; Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zar dari promised President Barack Obama more than a year ago that it would be completed by the end of 2009. During talks between the two sides that began last week, U.S. officials helped to forge a deal in time to announce it Sunday night, just hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.
Today, Clinton and the Pakistanis will unveil their own bilateral agreement for the U.S. to spend an initial $500 million in economic assistance in Pakistan. Primarily for water and energy projects, the aid is part of a $7.5 billion, five-year development package approved by Congress last fall.
The trade and aid agreements are part of the administration’s ongoing efforts to facilitate Obama’s struggling Afghanistan war strategy. The administration hopes that a long- term investment here, along with repeated visits from senior officials, will persuade Pakistan to more solidly align its own interests with those of the United States.
Most immediately, it would like the Pakistani military to take more aggressive action against Taliban groups that use Pakistan as their headquarters and base of operations for attacks in Afghanistan. Following the failed Times Square bombing attempt in May, U.S. intelligence concluded that confessed bomber Faisal Shah zad had been trained and directed by the Pakistani Taliban, a domestic extremist group allied with those active in Afghanistan. Administration officials warned Pakistan that a successful attack in U.S. territory emanating from Pakistan would have a “devastating impact on our relationship,” Clinton said in an interview with the BBC Sunday.
“I worry about it all the time, and so do the Pakistanis,” she said.
Historical adversaries Pakistan and India have long competed for influence in Afghanistan, and the administration has tried to juggle its own relations with the three while encouraging resolution of differences. The new trade accord will boost Afghan exports by regularizing customs and transit-permit arrangements, giving Afghanistan easier access to Pakistani sea ports and allowing Pakistan greater access to Central Asia.
