The United States and Pakistan: Partners in Development

The U.S. has been supporting Pakistan in both combating terrorism and flood recovery and relief efforts with massive amounts of security and disaster assistance funds. While challenges remain, the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, which is meeting for the third time this year October 20-22, represents the shared commitment of the U.S. and Pakistan to transforming the bilateral relationship into a broad partnership capable of addressing challenges as they arise.

On October 20, Foreign Policy at Brookings and the Asia Society hosted Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for an address on U.S.-Pakistan cooperation through the strategic dialogue framework and the ongoing efforts to simultaneously fight terrorism and provide disaster relief under extremely difficult conditions. After his remarks, Foreign Minister Qureshi was joined by Richard Holbrooke, special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Rajiv Shah, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Martin Indyk, vice president and director of Foreign Policy, provided welcome and introductory remarks. Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, moderated the discussion. After the program, the participants took audience questions.