Two powerful ladies meet in Tokyo

Tokyo: Foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar held an important one-on-one meeting with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton during the international conference on Afghanistan in Japan’s capital Tokyo.
It was their first face-to-face meeting since the two countries last week struck a deal to re-open key supply routes into Afghanistan, closed for seven months following a US attack in which 24 Pakistani soldiers died.

During the meeting, both leaders discussed relations between Pakistan and United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed hope that Pakistan s reopening of NATO supply lines into Afghanistan will lead to better U.S.-Pakistani relations.
United States and Pakistan are putting past tensions behind them to focus on the future, she added.
Clinton told reporters in Tokyo on the sidelines of a conference on Afghanistan that she had “a broad-ranging discussion” with Hina Rabbani Khar on resolving some of the issues surrounding the re-opening of border routes.
Her talks with Khar had “focused on the necessity of defeating the terror networks that threaten the stability of Pakistan and Afghanistan” as well as Afghan reconciliation efforts.
“We also discussed economic support and the goal of moving towards more trade then aid as part of our economic relationship,” Clinton said.
“Obviously there’s a lot of follow-up work that has to be done. I’ve said a number of times that is a challenging and interesting relationship and it remains so,” Clinton said.
She said the U.S. and Pakistan want to build on the momentum with greater counterterrorism and economic cooperation. She says she also discussed stalled Afghan reconciliation efforts with Khar.