Islamabad: Pakistan is reassessing its relations with the US and NATO to redefine the terms for cooperation with them after a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
"There had been a lot of ups and downs in the relationship with the US and we really want to improve our relationship," Gilani told reporters on the sidelines of an official function here.
The issue of the NATO attack on Pakistani military border posts on November 26 has been referred to the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which has been asked to assess the situation and give its recommendations to the government, he said.
The parliamentary panel "will formulate recommendations for the joint session of parliament on how to improve or how to revisit our relationship and also cooperation in future with the US, NATO and International Security Assistance Force" in Afghanistan, Gilani said.
"We are also holding an inquiry into the incident," he added. Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani met Gilani to discuss national security issues in the backdrop of the NATO air strike.
The army chief informed the Prime Minister that his force had revamped defence capabilities on the Afghan border to effectively counter the recurrence of any incursion into Pakistan territory, an official statement said.
Gilani said his government will not "allow a similar attack on the country s sovereignty and any attempt in future will definitely meet the detrimental response".
Earlier in the day, US Ambassador Cameron Munter met Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to discuss the "current status of bilateral relations" after the NATO attack.
Khar remarked that relations between the two countries "must be based on mutual respect".
In an apparent reference to the NATO air strike, Khar said "recent incidents have led to a re-evaluation" of Pakistan's terms of engagement with the US.
Munter assured Khar of an "early conclusion" to the investigation into the NATO attack and said the US would work with the Pakistan government to "normalise the relationship at the earliest."
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