Washington: The US is seeking concrete action from Pakistan in the war against terrorism, a US official said, adding that it is in best interest of both the countries to carry the relationship forward.
"We are asking them for some concrete actions," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. "We have been clear that we have had a productive
counterterrorism relationship with Pakistan over the past ten years that's led to, as the (US) President said, the death of more terrorists on Pakistan's soil than anywhere else in the world," he said.
"We are going to continue to pursue that because, as I said, it's in our long-term national interest and our short-term, frankly. It's in the interest of Pakistan who faced, frankly, an existential threat as we saw last week with the bombing at the police training academy. So this is in our mutual interest. We clearly have some concerns that we want to address, but we are going to keep this moving forward," Toner said.
Responding to questions, Toner said the US Government understands the concerns raised in Congress about Pakistan in the wake of the bin Laden raid, and it shares some of those concerns.
"We have been quite clear in conveying those concerns to the Government of Pakistan," he said, adding Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Mark Grossman is headed towards Islamabad for another round of talks.
"We have also been consistent in saying that we believe this kind of counterterrorism cooperation is indeed in the interest of both our countries, our long-term national security interests, and we are going to seek to move forward.
But it is also important to stress that we do have these concerns, we share them, and we want answers," Toner said.
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