A DIFFICULT but necessary relationship — the latest assessment of Pak-US relations by US secretaries Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton, made during comments at the National Defence University in Washington, underscores that much still needs to be done to restore trust and confidence between the two states. While Secretary Clinton tried to take a historical perspective — “I think the Pakistanis have a viewpoint that has to be shown some respect: are you going to be with us or not? Because you [the US] keep in, you go out” — she also said, “well, they are partners, but they don't always see the world the way we see the world, and they don't always cooperate with us on what we think … is in their interests”. Secretary Panetta was more forthright about the problem areas: the Haqqani network, the Lashkar-i-Taiba threat against India, the issuance of Pakistani visas to Americans and Pakistan's nuclear weapons coexisting in a state where terrorism and militancy are rampant. For those reasons, and the fight against Al Qaeda, in which Pakistani cooperation was acknowledged by Mr Panetta, the defence secretary said the US has “got to maintain a relationship with Pakistan”.

The most troubling aspect of the troubles in the relationship is that while both sides have for months acknowledged that ties must be maintained, they cannot seem to find a way to bring these to an even keel. That means that even where there is cooperation and some convergence in interests, problems in other areas of the relationship can threaten the gains. Take the Afghanistan track of the relationship between the US and Pakistan. While Pakistan still remains suspicious that it will be shut out of reconciliation talks between the Taliban on the one side and the US and Afghan governments on the other, observers believe the US and Pakistan are converging in some respects on an acceptable 'end state' in Afghanistan. At the very least, neither the US nor Pakistan want Afghanistan to slip into chaos and anarchy again — though, of course, Pakistan continues to hedge its bets and shield the Haqqanis in case their influence is needed if Afghanistan does implode and return to the terrible days of the mid-1990s.

But while there is some, tenuous, convergence in Afghanistan, American intelligence operations run on Pakistani soil continue to rile the army and its intelligence arms here — meaning the inclination to cooperate is curbed. Murky and messy, perhaps what is needed in Pak-US relations is a little sunlight. Pakistan should publicly spell out what it wants, as should the US — and then the two sides can figure out common ground.