Updated on
Summary PM Gilani is expected to meet US President Obama during Seoul Nuclear Security Summit 2012.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is expected to meet US President Barack Obama during a nuclear security summit in South Korea next week, a senior Pakistani official said Friday.US officials were not immediately reachable to confirm the meeting, which would be the most senior-level face-to-face talks between both countries since American forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May.Pakistani-US relations hit an all-time low after that humiliating operation, which Washington said was carried out without Islamabads knowledge, and subsequent US air strikes killing 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.But from Monday Pakistani lawmakers are to debate new parameters for getting the troubled relationship back on track, expected to see Pakistan eventually reopen its Afghan border to NATO convoys after a four-month closure.The prime minister will meet President Obama on March 27 on the sidelines of the international conference in Seoul, the Pakistani official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Bilateral relations and progress in the war on terror would be discussed, the official added.Obama last met Gilani in April 2010 on the eve of another nuclear summit in Washington, at a time when the US was seen to be making a concerted effort to reduce anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.But US-Pakistani relations nosedived dramatically in 2011, firstly over a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis, then the furore over bin Laden and lastly over the November air strikes.The last top-level American visit to Pakistan was in October last year when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Islamabad to dismantle Afghan militant havens and encourage the Taliban to join peace talks.The recommendations for a recrafted relationship -- up for debate in Pakistans parliament -- include a US apology for the November killings, an end to drone strikes against militants on Pakistani soil and taxes on NATO convoys.Pakistan was incensed by the American refusal to apologise for the November 26 killings and also ordered US personnel to leave a base reportedly used in Americas drone war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.Gilanis office said the prime minister is also due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, King Abdullah of Jordan and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the nuclear summit next Monday and Tuesday.
