Relations with Pakistan guided by national interests: USA

Washington : The United States said the WikiLeaks cables have not changed its relations with Pakistan since their ties are guided by national interests.

“Our relations with Pakistan, with other countries are guided by our national interests and Pakistan?s national interests. Those haven?t changed by these revelations,” said US Assistant Secretary Philip J. Cowley on Wednesday at a press briefing here.

“We are pursuing a strategic partnership with Pakistan because we face a common adversary. That doesn?t change either,” he said.

“We have taken aggressive action. Pakistan has taken aggressive action. We are helping Pakistan improve its military capability, improve its civilian capability. That?s not going to change by what has happened here,” Cowley said.

Earlier, Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said his government had already released its reaction on the WikiLeaks and and that his country?s national interests and relations with other countries “would not be affected by such mischief in any manner.”

According to WikiLeaks revelations, American diplomats feared that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme could lead to fissile material falling into the hands of terrorists.

According to the leaked cables, America also thinks that regardless of all the aid it gets from United States, Pakistan is unlikely to abandon its covert backing of terror outfits operating from its soil.

Part of the huge contingent of classified ?cables? or diplomatic communiqu?s that were posted on the Internet by the whistle-blowing website, a 2009 message from the then U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan has brought this biting revelation to light.

In the candid assessment of Pakistan?s stand on terror groups, Ambassador Anne Patterson had written to Washington on Sep. 23, 2009 that Pakistan considered terrorism as an ?important part of its national security apparatus against India.?