US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel walks into a building to meet with troops at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan on December 8, 2013.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is set to visit Pakistan later on Monday for talks about �œsecurity partnership and how to address common threats,” a Pentagon official said.
It will be the first visit by a US defense secretary to Islamabad in four years, when Nawaz Sharif appointed a new Army chief of staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif, said Hagel�™s spokesman Carl Woog.
The US defense secretary is scheduled to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit, which comes at a time of tension between the two countries about US drone strikes in northwestern Pakistan that have left thousands of civilians dead since 2004.
Pakistani authorities had blocked the US main supply route to Afghanistan due to angry public protests against civilian deaths caused by CIA drones.
The United States has the same problem with the Afghan government which is angry at civilian deaths caused by US troops�™ night raids on Afghan homes.
Hagel will also discuss the �œcommon interest that the United States and Pakistan have in a stable Afghanistan.” Last month during his visit to Kabul, Sharif pledged to help facilitate peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
Hagel will arrive in Pakistan from neighboring Afghanistan where he met with top officials and the American troops, who are set to leave the Asian country by the end of 2014 if a security pact is not signed between the two sides.
During his visit to Afghanistan, Hagel tried to persuade the Afghan government to sign a bilateral security agreement to allow some US troops to remain in the country after 2014. However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the US military must first end its deadly night raids on Afghan homes if it wants the agreement signed.
ARA/ARA
Source: Press TV