...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
chief urged Pakistain on Saturday to back efforts to stabilise Afghanistan as President
Asif Ali President Ten PercentZardari
... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ...
arrived in Chicago to attend a NATO summit which aims to finalise a transition plan for the war-torn country.
Leaders from 61 countries, including the US, Pakistain and Afghanistan, are attending the May 20-21 conference in US President Barack Obama's
I inhaled. That was the point...
hometown, Chicago.
Although no bilateral meeting between President B.O. and President Zardari is on the card, media representatives were seen speculating about a trilateral meeting, which may include their Afghan counterpart Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai.
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
US Defence Secretary Leon E. Panetta, meanwhile, told L.A. Times that he planned to confront Pakistain over what he considered price gouging for transport of supplies to Afghanistan and hoped for a 'consensus' among allies over the war effort.Mr Panetta ruled out paying Pakistain $5,000 for each truck carrying supplies across its territory for NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pak officials have demanded that amount as a condition for reopening supply routes that have been closed to the alliance since fall.
"Considering the financial challenges that we're facing, that's not likely," Mr Panetta said of the demand.
But Pak officials say that their schedule does not include a Panetta-Zardari meeting, which further strengthens the possibility of trilateral talks, although both US and Pak official say that no trilateral meeting is planned either.
"We can't solve the problems in Afghanistan without the positive engagement of Pakistain," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a policy forum in Chicago.
He also referred to the alleged terrorist safe havens in Pakistain's tribal areas and said NATO was looking forward to work with Pakistain to eradicate those bases.
"We have to solve these problems," he said.
Mr Rasmussen, who is scheduled to meet President Zardari on Saturday evening or early Sunday, said he would "convey a couple of clear messages" to the Pak leader. He did not elaborate the messages.