AP - President Bush, already scheduled to meet separately in the coming days with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, has now added joint White House talks where all three leaders can discuss regional security.
NEW YORK - President Bush, already scheduled to meet separately in the coming days with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, has now added joint White House talks where all three leaders can discuss regional security.
Relations between the neighboring countries have sometimes been strained over terrorist hideouts along their long, remote, mountainous border. A growing Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, aimed at toppling the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has made the situation there an increasingly urgent problem for the Bush administration.
The White House announced Tuesday that the three-way session was scheduled for Sept. 27, a day after the president sees Karzai in the Oval Office, and five days after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's separate session with the Bush.
"The meeting will provide the three leaders an opportunity to discuss further cooperation in enhancing the trilateral relationship," White House press secretary Tony Snow said in a statement.
Pakistan was once a key Taliban supporter, but switched sides to become an ally of the U.S. in its campaign against terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Still, Pakistani-Afghan relations have suffered under allegations by Afghan officials that Pakistan hasn't done enough to go after the remnants of the ousted Taliban regime, which Afghani leaders say have established hideouts in Pakistan along the mountainous border. Pakistan has rejected such charges.
Recently, cross-border relations have improved, and Karzai and Musharraf pledged in meetings in Kabul earlier this month to jointly fight militants.
Bush visited both leaders in their home countries in March.
09-19-2006, 01:11 PM
