ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Washington and Islamabad must work in the spirit of cooperation in order to wage an effective battle against insurgents, the U.S. secretary of state said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up her visit to Pakistan on Friday with a round-table discussion with local media.
Clinton was in Pakistan to discuss a series of measures ranging from energy to security matters.
Pakistan embarked on a major counterinsurgency operation in the volatile tribal regions while top U.S. officials discuss revisions to their war strategy for Afghanistan.
Ian Kelly, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, told reporters in Washington recently that the U.S. government recognizes this is a difficult period for Pakistan.
"We recognize that this is a very difficult time for Pakistan," he said. "But we also recognize that the fight that they're involved in right now is very much a common fight, this fight against retrograde extremists who want to bring their country back into the dark ages."
Clinton, for her part, went on the offensive, accusing the Pakistani government of not being serious enough about the war on terror.
"Al-Qaida has had safe haven in Pakistan since 2002," she said. "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to."
She went on to call for broader understanding of the issues at hand, calling the U.S.-Pakistani relationship a "two-way street."
"I wanted to get that out on the table because the Pakistanis have talked about a trust deficit, and it's a two-way street," she told NBC's Andrea Mitchell. "We have questions, they have questions, we need to be responding, and we need to be as open as possible."
