Pakistan president leaves for Chicago

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday left for the United States to attend the 25th NATO Summit in Chicago, scheduled for May 20-21, the foreign ministry said.

Zardari was visiting Chicago at the invitation of NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Foreign Office spokesman in a statement.

The presidential decision on participating in the important event came after the Defence Committee of Cabinet and the Cabinet endorsed the invitation.

In Chicago, the president will address the expanded ISAF nations and meet heads of state and government on the margins of the summit.

Representatives from 60 countries and international agencies, including the European Union, the World Bank and the UN, will discuss funding for Afghan forces after 2014, when most of ISAF’s combat troops will leave the country.

Islamabad has indicated its willingness to reopen NATO supply routes that have been closed since a cross-border ISAF airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in the Mohmand tribal region in November 2011.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said the NATO had extended an unconditional invitation to Zardari and a final decision on reopening the ground lines of communication for NATO supplies would depend on the outcome of ongoing talks between different ministries and organisations.

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