US, Pakistan to Resume High-level Negotiations

(AP) US, Pakistan to resume high-level negotiations
By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press
ISLAMABAD
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz, say the two countries will resume high-level negotiations over security issues.

Kerry also says he invited Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif (nah-WAHZ’ shah-REEF’), to come to Washington to meet with President Barack Obama.

The two diplomats spoke Thursday at a press conference after Kerry met with Sharif in Islamabad.

High-level talks between the two countries stalled in 2011 after U.S. airstrikes on a Pakistani post on the Afghan border accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

The resumption of the so-called “strategic dialogue” would indicate that the relationship between the two countries has improved since that low point.

But tensions remain over such issues as U.S. drone strikes and Pakistan’s willingness to dismantle extremists’ havens within its borders.