American military commanders exchange key proposals with Kayani to ease US-Pak strained ties

Islamabad, Mar 29 (ANI): Top US military commanders, who flew in to meet Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Wednesday, have exchanged key proposals to ease the months-old strained relationship between both countries, mainly following last November's NATO attack that killed 24 soldiers.

Officially, however, nothing much was said about the talks held at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, The Express tribune reports.

According to a statement issued by the military ahead of the talks, the top commanders from both sides were to discuss the investigation of the American air strikes in November and ways to improve border coordination.

The two American generals also separately met Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff General Khalid Shamim Wynne.

"General James N Mattis and General John Allen remained with Gen Wynne for some time and discussed bilateral matters of professional interests, and the emerging geo-strategic situation of the region," a brief Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) statement, said.

Sources, however, revealed that the two sides discussed certain proposals to move beyond the Salala incident.

The US offered a new mechanism to operate drones inside the country's tribal belt to take out 'high-value' targets associated with the al Qaeda and the Taliban, which will limit the number of predator strikes and offer Pakistan ownership to provide it the necessary face-saving in the wake of growing public anger on drones, a source said.

Pakistan is believed to have shown its willingness to lift the ban but under certain conditions.

"We are not only seeking to impose additional taxes on NATO goods, but also asked the US to pay compensation for the damage caused to our road infrastructure by the NATO containers," a military official said. (ANI)