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‘Stable Pakistan can
reset ties with US’

“I think the best thing we’ve done over the past several months — you know, the incident occurred on November 26 and here we sit on March the 16^th — I think the best thing we’ve done is we’ve not conducted our engagement with them (Pakistan) with a microphone,” Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as saying.

Dempsey’s comments came during an appearance on American TV programme the “Charlie Rose Show”.

Ties between the two countries came under strain following the November 26, 2011 Nato air strikes on two Pakistan army border posts that killed at 24 Pakistan soldiers.

“We’ve communicated with them directly. We’ve communicated with them privately,” Dempsey said.

“We’re back in close contact with them along the border. We have been in conversations about our military to military relationship, about our foreign military sales, about some of the common challenges of terrorism, and they have asked to be given time in their parliamentary process to have some internal discussions about what the new relationship might be, but I’m personally optimistic that we can reset the relationship in a way that meets both of our needs,” he said.

Asked if he believed that Pakistan was now stable, in the wake of years of grappling with militancy, Dempsey said: “I do believe Pakistan is stable today.”

He, however, said “there are some trend lines that would be concerning for both them and us in terms of migration of various terrorist groups”.

Discussing Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts along the Afghan border, he said Pakistanis will do the best they can to curb terrorist groups. —