UK and Pakistan hail 'unbreakable' relationship
Updated on 06 August 2010
David Cameron and President Zardari insist Britain and Pakistan have an "unbreakable" relationship, as a spat and criticism over flood inaction threaten to overshadow their meeting, writes Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman.
The meeting between David Cameron and President Zardari has ended with warm words from the Prime Minister about an "unbreakable relationship" and the planting of a tree in memory of the late Benazir Bhutto, Mr Zardari's wife, in the grounds of Chequers in Buckinghamshire.
This sombre event in bucolic countryside in England's high summer could hardly be more symbolic of the deadly mutual threat faced by both countries, given that Benazir herself was killed by Islamist militants.
The relationship seems to be on a better footing than it was last week, when Mr Cameron chose India of all places to accuse Pakistan of "looking both ways" in the battle to combat terrorism and of certain elements "exporting terror".
Standing alongside Mr Cameron, President Zardari said: "Storms will come and storms will go and Pakistan and Britain will stand together and face all the difficulties with dignity".
Mr Cameron said the leaders' meeting had been "excellent" and that "an unbreakable relationship between Britain and Pakistan" was based on mutual interests on trade and combating terrorism.
"We want to work together to combat terrorism", he said.
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We gather there will be more high level meetings between British and Pakistani officials, an annual UK-Pakistan summit and a visit by Mr Cameron to Pakistan, most likely within the next six months. Home Secretary Theresa May is to travel to Pakistan in the autumn.
The formal talks at Chequers officially covered counter-terrorism co-operation, Afghanistan, the international response to the floods in Pakistan as well as the high stakes £1bn in trade that flows between the two countries.
Downing Street presents the above as concrete advances. Perhaps significantly though, there was no press conference after today's visit, allowing any differences to be airbrushed out of the picture of harmony.
And President Zardari's critics argue that the very fact that he is in the UK reveals his impotence.
It is Pakistan's prime minister and not president who, along with army commanders, is spearheading relief efforts back home after the worst floods in 80 years.
Mr Zardari is a stand-in president, elected after a wave of sympathy for the death of his wife; a man apparently waiting for his son, Bilawal Bhutto, to carry on the family business of politics now that he has graduated from Oxford University.
So the question Whitehall officials must be asking is what any agreement on combating terrorism with Mr Zardari is worth, given that he is largely a figurehead president.
Mr Zardari's son may be politically savvy than his own father: Bilawal will not, as expected, be launching his own political career by appearing alongside the president in Birmingham tomorrow, which surely would have intensified charges back home that the family cares more about its own future than the millions of Pakistanis suffering from the floods.
'The West must reassure Pakistan'
Nigel Inkster, director of transnational threats and political risk at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Channel 4 News that the West had a chance to prove to Pakistan that its relationship was not just about terrorism by providing aid to the country in its hour of need.
The UK government has already pledged £10m in aid, and the USA has given $10m, and humanitarian agencies have also launched appeals globally.
Mr Inkster said: "There is a need to reassure the Pakistani government that the key Western states and there for the long term and they are not just fairweather friends.
"With the flood – and we saw this with the earthquake a few years ago – the jihadists move in very ostentatiously and can deliver things quickly, and also rebadge Western aid as coming from them.
"So this is an important battle as such, and it remains to be seen if the West can make itself look better at providing aid."
Read the interview in full here.
