Cameron facing rough ride with Zardari
British Prime Minister David Cameron was facing tricky talks this week with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari after the British Prime Minister’s remarks on the export of terror triggered a diplomatic spat.
Mr Zardari’s three-day visit later this week is likely to be overshadowed by the fall-out from Mr Cameron’s outspoken comments in Pakistan’s rival neighbour India last week.
Pakistan’s ISI agency has already pulled out of a visit to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation with British security services in London.
Mr Cameron has come under fire in some British newspapers for a string of perceived diplomatic errors in his first major series of foreign visits, to the US and India, in recent weeks.
Pakistan’s information minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said Mr Zardari would “explain the facts” over Cameron’s “misperception”, insisting that the row should not be allowed to sour relations between the two countries.
“If the prime minister of the UK has said something that is contrary to the facts on the ground, it doesn’t mean that we should boycott each other,” Kaira said on Saturday at a press conference in London.
“The President of Pakistan will explain and have a dialogue and good discussion and he will explain the facts to the new government over here. We hope that... when they get the exact picture, they will agree with us.”
Zardari is due for talks with Mr Cameron on Friday at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat.
Pakistan has been under intense scrutiny after leaked secret US military documents detailed alleged links between the ISI and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Mr Kaira rejected any such suggestion. He said the planned ISI London visit had been postponed “because of their own commitments”, adding that the stalled trip was “operational”, involving lower-ranking ISI agents.
He said he expected that intelligence cooperation would continue. “We are quite confident that when we have explained the situation to the new leadership over here, they will of course recognise and realise the sacrifices and actions the government of Pakistan has taken in relation to extremism,” he said.
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