On Monday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani told Xinhua, “We are proud to have China as our best and most trusted friend and China will always find Pakistan standing beside it at all times.”

He said China was the first country to show its support and solidarity with the government and people of Pakistan, in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces:

“To test a friend whether true or not, it needs time and means under crisis, we appreciate that in all difficult circumstances China stood with Pakistan, therefore we call China a true friend and a time-tested and all-weather friend.”

This comes at the same time as a military confrontation between Nato helicopters and Pakistan’s military, injuring two of Pakistan’s soldiers, causing the Pakistan military to demand a “flag meeting” with Nato commanders over Nato incursions into Pakistan’s soil, according to the Telegraph. (A “flag meeting” is a meeting of military officials on their common border.)

The incident involved two Nato helicopters at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, though it’s not clear which side they were on. According to the Pakistani statement, “The [Pakistani troops] fired upon the helicopters and, as a result of the exchange of fire, two of our soldiers received injuries.”

Last week, Pakistan’s parliament threatened reprisals for American military actions on Pakistan’s soil — the drone strikes and the military action that killed Osama bin Laden. They threatened to prohibit Nato from ferrying military supplies from Karachi harbor, across Pakistan into Afghanistan. They also threatened to end sharing of intelligence with the CIA.

As I’ve been writing for years, my expectation is that the coming Clash of Civilizations world war will pit the “axis” of China, Pakistan and the Sunni nations against the “allies” of the U.S., India, Russia, Iran and Israel, among others. The events of the last few weeks, since the killing of Osama bin Laden, appear to have pushed events very far along this trend line.

Germany limits information exchange with U.S. intelligence

The Pakistanis have threatened to limit sharing intelligence information with the CIA, and the Germans are doing the same thing. Opposition has been growing in Germany to America’s use of unmanned drones in Pakistan and Yemen, especially since October 4 of last year, when a missile from a missile strike from an unmanned American drone killed German citizen Islamists sitting in a room in Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal area. Spiegel

Pakistan promises to continue targeting sanctuaries

After an all-day meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, with Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and other officials, Senator John Kerry said that progress had been achieved. These achievements were vague promises to continue cooperation on counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and targeting terrorist sanctuaries. Dawn (Pakistan)