Terror havens, Indo-Pak ties to figure in Pak talks, says US

US Secretary of State John Kerry will raise the issue of continued terrorist safe havens in border areas of Pakistan during his meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, a senior US official said.
Kerry is on his maiden trip to Pakistan and is scheduled to meet President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Sharif and Army Chief Kayani today during his day long hectic deliberations in Islamabad in which India-Pak ties, Afghan peace talks, besides economic issues is expected to figure prominently, the official added.
"We will continue to talk about the issues of cross- border militancy and as we have stated in the past the reality that safe havens for extremist groups clearly threaten our interests, our allies in the region, and most of all really Sharif's own ability to execute on his reform agenda and provide greater economic stability," the official said.

"So how we continue to deal with those issues of cross-border militancy is something that will be a key piece of this conversation," the official said, as Kerry landed in Islamabad last night - the highest level visit from the Obama Administration after Sharif was voted back to power with thumping majority a few months ago.
"We expect the kind of the range of the issues at the civilian government to lead on, to really dominate, whether that's regional issues, Indo-Pak, Afghan-Pak, but the economy, energy, and domestic extremism, as Nawaz ran on a platform of the three Es - the economy, energy, and extremism. We expect that much of that will be addressed in that initial meeting," the official said.

In Afghanistan, he said the US continues to receive kind of constructive cooperation from the Pakistanis, both on the civilian leadership and on the military leadership and publicly calling on the Afghan Taliban to join peace negotiations and try to continue to facilitate the reconciliation process.

Responding to questions on the issue of drone strikes, which Pakistani politicians have opined on quite a bit and the parliament has passed several resolutions about, the official said the US knows that Pakistan wants a conversation about it.
"It will be part of a broader and very comprehensive discussion on the whole range of counterterrorism issues," the official added.

"In terms of the nuclear piece, one of the five working groups that we have on strategic stability focuses on that piece of it under a kind of public framework, and that is the venue that we use for kind of that dialogue," he said when asked about possibility of discussion on nuclear issue.