With friends like these…

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did not receive a warm reception in Pakistan this week. Elisabeth Bumiller reports in the New York Times:

Pakistani journalists asked Mr. Gates if the United States had plans to take over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (Mr. Gates said no) and whether the United States would expand the drone strikes farther south into Baluchistan, as is under discussion. Mr. Gates did not answer.

At the same time, the Pakistani Army’s chief spokesman told American reporters at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday that the military had no immediate plans to launch an offensive against extremists in the tribal region of North Waziristan, as American officials have repeatedly urged.

And the spokesman, Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, rejected Mr. Gates’s assertion that Al Qaeda had links to militant groups on Pakistan’s border. Asked why the United States would have such a view, the spokesman, General Abbas, curtly replied, “Ask the United States.”

Well, I am no expert on Pakistan and I have no idea what links Al Qaeda has with “militant groups” along Pakistan’s border. All I know is what I read in the news. Here’s what Lehaz Ali reported in Agence France-Presse yesterday:

A suicide bomber killed at least four people including two children on Saturday while militants destroyed a NATO tanker in a region of Pakistan known for harbouring Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

OK, so Gates says there is a problem, the Pakistanis say there is not, and a few bombs just went off in the region where there may or may not be a problem, depending on who you ask. Seems like Pakistan and the US have some differences of opinion over this issue.

This may or may not be troubling for the US, depending on what sort of relationship it wants with Pakistan. Obama clarified this issue in his West Point speech:

…we are committed to a partnership with Pakistan that is built on a foundation of mutual interests, mutual respect and mutual trust. We will strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists whose location is known, and whose intentions are clear.

That’s clear enough. It wants Pakistan as a partner. How’s that partnership working out? Seems to me we have a long way to go before we can tick off the checklist of “mutual interests, mutual respect and mutual trust.”