Obama's call

US President-elect Barack Obama, in a round of telephone calls to thank world leaders who had either talked to him personally or sent congratulatory messages on his thumping victory at the polls, also spoke to President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday. As expected on such occasions, the two leaders reaffirmed the friendly relations that existed between Washington and Islamabad. Mr Obama underlined the importance of Pakistan to the US, particularly in the context of the War On Terror, and vowed to continue cooperation, and his sentiments of cooperation were fully reciprocated. Consistent with his views, which had found expression on different occasions during the election campaign, that the US should not prop up individuals against the wishes of the people and, instead, promote their interests, the President-elect gave full assurance that his administration would lend its support for the promotion of democracy in Pakistan, which has only recently come out of the dark shadows of a military regime.
Understandably, the close and traditional relations that have existed between the US and Western countries, whose help in pursuing anti-terrorism operations has been quite noteworthy, received the first priority and Mr Obama spoke to them a day earlier. But, because of Pakistan's role as a key ally in this regard, he also called Mr Zardari. After all, Islamabad's continued cooperation is of crucial significance to the US goal of defeating the forces of militancy. The details of the exchange of views the two leaders had are not known but one could expect that at this stage hardly anything beyond the usual expressions of goodwill could have formed the theme.