“We need each other. And each side recognizes that. Our relationship has been a complex one for decades. And the way I put it is we just have to keep working at it,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said. -AFP Photo

WASHINGTON: The United States needs Pakistan more than the key South Asian country needs the US, a former American ambassador to India acknowledged while citing Washington's heavy reliance on Pakistani cooperation for decade-old Afghan mission.

“We tend to need Pakistan more than Pakistan needs us. That's the current dilemma, because in many ways the United States is utterly dependent on Pakistan for logistical access to Afghanistan,” Ambassador Thomas Pickering said.

Pickering, who served as US envoy in New Delhi in 1992-93, favoured developing close ties with India in an interview with think tank National Bureau of Asian Research, said the view that India provided entry point to the entire region was naive.

“I think that is a fairly naive view. On the one hand, India is flattered, or was in the past, by the notion that the United States sees it as the largest and most significant power in South Asia, while Pakistan finds that view utterly reprehensible.

“Pakistanis would like American aspirations and interests in the region to afford them a position of full equality. To some extent, that went the way of the past with President Clinton. Now with Afghanistan, the trappings of the US- Pakistan relationship are causing some degree of heartburn in India,” added    Pickering, who represented the US as envoy at the UN and in several countries.

Pickering saw in American dependence on Pakistan a paradoxical situation as he felt that the United States is in Afghanistan more to avoid destabilizing Pakistan than for almost any other reason.

The former diplomat's comments follow last week's candid recognition by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates at a Press Conference when he said Washington needs Pakistan beyond Afghanistan. He emphasized that Pakistan is not only important in South Asia but also in the Central Asian region.

“We need each other. And each side recognizes that. Our relationship has been a complex one for decades. And the way I put it is we just have to keep working at it,” Gates later told FOX News Sunday, while stressing continued engagement with Islamabad.

Gates spoke as some voices on Capitol Hill suggest limiting US assistance for Pakistan and seek a speedy pullout from Afghanistan. President Barack Obama,who has been mulling the size of troops reduction in Afghanistan, due to begin next month, will make an announcement on Wednesday. Maintaining over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan costs US around 110 billion dollars annually.