Chand Meri Zameen: News from Japan

The United States said on Friday that although it had made a generous aid pledge to Pakistan in Tokyo, relations between the two countries did suffer from a trust deficit.

‘There’s no question that there are issues of trust’, between the US and Pakistan, State Department spokesman Robert Wood told a briefing in Washington. ‘We’re working hard to try to resolve them. And there’s a commitment on both sides to try to deal with that question.’

Earlier on Friday, the State Department issued a statement saying that the $1 billion pledged in Tokyo were ‘a down payment’ on a $1.5 billion annual aid package already introduced in the US Congress.

The pledge made in Tokyo is also ‘subject to Congressional approval’, the State Department said.

Asked if the Tokyo conference provided an opportunity to repair the trust deficit between the two countries, Mr Wood said the US would continue to work with Pakistan to resolve the issues of trust.

‘I’m not going to say that the issue of trust is going to be resolved overnight. It’s not. But it takes action on the part of both governments to try to deal fairly and squarely with a lot of these issues that confront us,’ he said.

'And so it’s something we’ll continue to work on. But indeed, there is that issue of trust,’ he added.

Mr Wood said that the stakes were ‘very high’ and the US needed to work with Pakistan on trying to prevent the Taliban from wreaking more havoc, on not only Pakistan but Afghanistan in particular.

'Our goals, obviously, are to do what we can to support the government of Pakistan and its efforts to try to bring about, you know, economic development and further democracy in the country,’ the spokesman said.

The United States, he said, also wanted to ensure that most of the money given to Pakistan went to its people.

‘It’s something that the president and the secretary want to make sure happens. And we’re going to continue to work that,’ he said