For US President Barack Obama, his meetings with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House on Wednesday is of great emergency.
 |
|
US President Barack Obama (C) talks to reporters as Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai (2nd L), Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari (R) and US Vice President Joe Biden stand on at the White House in Washington May 6, 2009. [Zhang Yan/Xinhua]
|
The summit meeting, in a form of first one-on-one talks and then a tripartite meeting, took place amid growing concerns over Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, which are compromising vital US interests in the region.
Increasing Taliban threats
The three-way summit came as Pakistan is facing mounting threat from Taliban militants, who have reached out from strongholds on the Pakistan-Afghan border to Pakistan's northwest Buner region, about 100 km from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
Despite successive counter attacks by Pakistan's military in the past weeks, the worsening situation in the region remains alarming, both to the Obama administration and its allies.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday that "Our most vital national security interests are at stake" as Taliban forces continue to advance.
"We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taliban and its allies," Holbrooke said.
It was believed that the Wednesday summits are a platform on which Obama would press Islamabad to do more against the Taliban and seek renewed commitment from Kabul to better coordinate operations with Pakistan and the United States.
"I'm pleased that these two men, elected leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, fully appreciate the seriousness of the threats that we face and have reaffirmed their commitment to confronting it," Obama said in a statement, with the presidents of the two countries standing at his side.
Potential nuclear proliferation
As the Bush administration focused its efforts on wiping out the Taliban militants inside Afghanistan, the Obama administration, while dedicated to the same task, is also worrying about the potential danger of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the terrorists
Senior US officials have been increasingly concerned about the vulnerabilities of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal as the insurgency of the Taliban and al Qaeda spreads in the country.
According to US media, the issue was high on the agenda during the meeting between Obama and his Pakistani counterpart.
