Several American lawmakers have been voicing concern that Pakistan has used American financial aid to build up its army against India, rather than fight extremism in its restive tribal areas. And they have been insisting on tough conditionalities for new aid.

Though he did not make a direct reference to these concerns, President Obama told the Dawn TV ‘We have in the past supported Pakistan militarily. I think it is important to make sure that military support is directed at extremists and our common enemies’.

He also spoke about American efforts to drum up global assistance to Pakistan. ‘We helped to lead an effort that raised USD 5 billion of development assistance for Pakistan at a donors conference in Japan, hundreds of millions of dollars that we’re trying to provide to support internally displaced people’.

‘My view’, the American President, said, ‘is that we have to help Pakistan to provide them the resources that will allow for development’. His Administration has increased the non-military aid to Pakistan to USD 1.5 billion a year for the next five years. He held the view that US-Pak cooperation must go beyond just military-to-military cooperation into ‘something richer’ and enable Pakistan to strengthen its resources that will facilitate development.

‘I also think that the relationship between the United States and Pakistan can’t just be based on military-to-military cooperation. It has got to be based on something richer that involves development and exchanges of students and business people, and development. So we want to encourage that kind of work, as well’, Obama told the Dawn TV.