The following is an excerpt from Mary Bruce | May 21, 2012 | abcnews.go.com |
CHICAGO — President Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met briefly today on the sidelines of the NATO summit, but made no progress toward resolving their diplomatic standoff over supply routes into Afghanistan.
Their meeting, which was also attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, comes amid mounting tension over Pakistan’s refusal to re-open its Afghanistan border to NATO, forcing the United States and others to supply their forces through longer, alternative routes. The channels would also be crucial to NATO’s exit plan to withdraw forces and military equipment from Afghanistan, posing a potential logistical nightmare for the alliance.
“President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can get worked through,” Obama later told reporters at a press conference. “We didn’t anticipate that the supply line issue was going to be resolved by this summit. We knew that before we arrived in Chicago. But we’re actually making diligent progress on it.
“I think ultimately, everybody in the alliance, all of ISAF and, most importantly, the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan understand that neither country is going to have the kind of security, stability and prosperity that it needs unless…
To read more visit: abcnews.go.com
