WASHINGTON: Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will be the first army chief to participate in the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue to be held here on March 24.
Also for the first time, the Americans are expected to include their defence secretary Robert Gates and national security adviser Gen James Jones.
ISI chief Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who got one-year extension last week, will represent Pakistans security interests.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who chaired a preparatory meeting in Islamabad on Saturday, noted that the dialogue had already been enhanced from the official to the ministerial level.
This means that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will lead their teams in the talks.
Although, as the prime minister said, the dialogue would be broad-based, the inclusion of such senior defence and security officials indicates that military and security issues would dominate.
But equally important is the need for reviving the Pakistani economy and Islamabad is expected to send a number of proposals on how it believes the United States can help achieve this target.
The Americans have indicated that they are willing to help, particularly in the energy sector where they are prepared to finance some major projects, which can be recognised as symbols of US support for Pakistan, like the Tarbela dam.
Pakistan, however, will have a major disadvantage in these talks as the country does not have a finance minister who would have been the second most important person in their team after the army chief.
As the prime minister said in Islamabad on Saturday, the Americans also had indicated that the talks would be very broad-based, covering economic, defence, security and social sectors.
But the issue that concerns the Americans most is the situation in Afghanistan and Fata. The Obama administration is keen to show some achievements in the war against militants before the mid-term elections in November when all 435 congressmen and 34 senators seek re-election.
If the ruling Democratic Party wants to maintain its control over the US Senate and the House, it needs to show progress in Afghanistan and Fata. Failing to do so can cause them to lose the elections and also endanger President Barack Obamas re-election in 2012.
The overwhelming feeling in Washington is that the Pakistani military can play a key role in achieving this target and diplomatic observers believe that one of the objectives of the strategic dialogue is to give Pakistan a chance to air its views on this issue.
The observers say that each side will use the dialogue to hear and convey its concerns and expectations to the other.
This marks a good effort by the two sides to bridge the trust deficit, but the risk is that it becomes so broad-ranging that it loses focus, warned one such observer.
The observers stressed the need for Pakistan to prioritise its objectives so that the dialogue could lead to concrete results.
They also urged Pakistan to ensure that substantial progress is also made on issues other than the war on terror, particularly on the economic front.
The Pakistanis should not go back with the feeling that all the Americans wanted to do was to seek greater cooperation in the war against militants and the rest was window-dressing, warned another observer.
The observers recalled that the US and Pakistan have been holding strategic talks for at least two decades now, without much progress.
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