ANNE GEARAN
AP National Security Writer
ISLAMABAD – The United States has no designs on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons or “a single inch of Pakistani soil,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Pakistani military officers Friday, adding that fighting terrorists along the Afghan border is in Pakistan’s interest as well as Washington’s.
“We have enemies in common along the border, but we also have many other interests in common,” Gates said, and the Pakistani military has choices to make about its resources and focus just as the U.S. armed forces have done.
Addressing the legacy of mistrust and what he called an “organized propaganda campaign” to misrepresent U.S. intentions, Gates ticked off some of the allegations against the United States in wide circulation in Pakistan.