Secretary Clinton focuses on U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue

On Wednesday, March 24th, Secretary Clinton had a full day of events focusing on Strategic Dialogue between the U.S. and Pakistan.

At 8:00 a.m. Secretary Clinton hosted the Opening Session of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, followed by a bilateral Meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, at the Department of State.

The State Department sent out a release confirming the United States and Pakistan goal to broaden and deepen their comprehensive cooperation and to further fortify the friendship between the two peoples.

They announced that a Policy Steering Group was established to intensify and expand the sectoral dialogue process in the fields of: economy and trade; energy; defense; security, strategic stability and non-proliferation; law enforcement and counter-terrorism; science and technology; education; agriculture; water; health; and communications and public diplomacy. Sectoral meetings will be held in Islamabad soon.

Both sides exchanged views on the status of bilateral cooperation and decided to continually provide strategic guidance for strengthening U.S.-Pakistan partnership in the 21st Century for realizing the aspirations of their people. And they reiterated that the core foundations of this partnership are shared democratic values, mutual trust and mutual respect.

Watch the video of the opening session of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue below:

After the bilateral meeting, during their press briefing, Qureshi expressed his joy with the process so far, saying he was a "satified man."

Madam Secretary, thank you. Today, I am a happy man and a satisfied man. I’m satisfied because you’ve finally agreed to many of the things that we’ve been sharing over our discussions in the last two years.

I suggested to Madam Secretary that if you want this relationship to become a partnership, you’ve got to think differently, you’ve got to act differently, and you’ve got to upgrade the level of our engagement. And she agreed, and thank you for that. I suggested to her a new format of our engagement when she was in Islamabad and Ambassador Holbrooke was there – a three-tiered structure of engagement, ministerial level, policy steering group to meet biannually to follow through, and then to expand the sectoral track.

The two also got a little giggly during the briefing. See gigglefest photos below:

Read their full remarks her or watch below: Later in the afternoon, Secretary Clinton attended a reception for the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue. View the video of that below: