ISLAMABAD: US Sen. John Kerry says he and Pakistani leaders have agreed on a “series of steps” to improve their nations' fraying ties. The senator did not specify what those steps are but he says they will “be implemented immediately in order to get this relationship back on track.” Kerry was in Pakistan on Monday amid high tensions over the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden on May 2. Pakistan says the raid violated its sovereignty. He insists the secrecy surrounding the raid was crucial to assuring its success, and that he himself did not learn of it until afterward. Kerry called Pakistan and the United States “strategic partners with a common enemy”. Kerry said he had held “constructive conversations” with Pakistan's leaders but reiterated “grave concerns” over the presence in Pakistan of the Al-Qaeda terror chief and sanctuaries of US adversaries in Afghanistan. “We must never lose sight of this essential fact. We are strategic partners with a common enemy in terrorism and extremism,” he said “Both of our countries have sacrificed... so much that it just wouldn't make sense to see this relationship broken or abandoned,” he added. Kerry also said Monday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to visit Pakistan. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Monday that Islamabad and Washington now needed to rebuild trust. Gilani said Pakistan wants “due recognition and support of the international community, particularly of the US at this stage rather than negative messaging and uncalled for criticism, emanating from there,” it said. Pakistan also said Monday it would work together with the United States on any future operations against high-value targets in the country.
