Summary The US Defense Secretary will meet PM Nawaz Sharif to discuss Afghanistan’s situation.
ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will reach Islamabad today (Monday) for talks as Washington seeks to defuse tensions over controversial US drone strikes and Islamabad s role in Afghanistan.
In the first visit by a US defence secretary in nearly four years, Hagel will fly from Kabul to Islamabad to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other top officials, including the country s new army chief.
Ties between Washington and Islamabad have been seriously strained over US drone strikes in Pakistan s tribal belt.
"Secretary Hagel met with Prime Minister Sharif on his visit to Washington earlier this year and looks forward to continuing candid and productive conversations," Pentagon spokesman Carl Woog told reporters on Sunday.
The visit was announced as Hagel s deputies said NATO shipments out of Afghanistan through Pakistan would resume after the end of anti-drone protests.
Hagel s spokesman said the defence secretary looked forward to discussing with his counterparts "the United States and Pakistan s common interest in a stable Afghanistan."
Pakistan is seen as crucial to peace in neighbouring Afghanistan as it was a key backer of the hardline 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Kabul and is believed to shelter some of the movement s leaders.
Hagel was headed to Pakistan after two days in Afghanistan, where he urged the country s president, Hamid Karzai, to sign a long-delayed security agreement that will allow NATO-led forces to stay in the country after 2014.
