Afghanistan, Pakistan initial a trade deal

The accord has been under negotiation for years; President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan promised President Obama more than a year ago that it would be completed by the end of 2009.

During talks between the two sides that began last week, US officials helped forge a deal in time to announce it last night, just hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.

Today, Clinton and the Pakistanis are expected to unveil their own bilateral agreement to spend an initial $500 million in new US economic assistance to Pakistan. Primarily for water and energy projects, the aid is part of a $7.5 billion, five-year development package approved by Congress last fall.

The trade and aid agreements are part of the administration’s efforts to facilitate Obama’s struggling Afghanistan war strategy. US officials hope that a long-term investment, along with repeated visits from senior officials, will persuade Pakistan to more solidly align its own interests with those of the United States.

Most urgently, they would like the Pakistani military to take more aggressive action against Taliban groups that use Pakistan as their headquarters and base of operations for attacks in Afghanistan.

The groups, including the Haqqani network based in the Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghan border, and the Quetta Shura based in the southern province of Baluchistan, have historically close ties with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate.

After the failed Times Square bombing attempt in May, US intelligence concluded that confessed bomber Faisal Shahzad had been trained and directed by the Pakistani Taliban, a domestic extremist group allied with those active in Afghanistan.

Administration officials warned Pakistan that a successful attack in US territory emanating from Pakistan would have a “devastating impact on our relationship,’’ Clinton said in an interview with the BBC yesterday.

Islamabad is at least as important as Kabul, said Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Over the past year, the United States has pushed for dialogue between Islamabad and Kabul as part of its war effort.

The new trade accord, an expansion of a limited agreement signed in 1965, will boost Afghan exports by easing customs and transit permit arrangements, giving Afghanistan easier access to Pakistani sea ports, and allowing Pakistan greater access to Central Asia.