U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with the foreign
ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan this week to discuss a U.S.
policy review of the volatile region.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood says Ms. Clinton will meet
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday. Wood also
says Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta will hold talks with
the secretary of state on Thursday. All three will attend trilateral
meetings and a dinner.
The U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard
Holbrooke, is also expected to take part in the meetings. Holbrooke
recently returned from a regional tour of Pakistan, Afghanistan and
India.
President Barack Obama last week approved the deployment of an
additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan to help U.S. and NATO soldiers
battle a resurgent Taliban movement and other militants.
The policy review also comes just as local Pakistani government
officials agreed to a peace deal in Swat Valley, where a bloody
insurgency to impose Islamic law has been raging for two years. The
United States government has expressed concern about the deal, saying
it could create a haven for militants.
Local officials say they signed the accord in a bid to pacify a growing militant insurgency.