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Obama: U.S. Making 'Diligent Progress' With Pakistan

President Obama said the U.S. was making "diligent progress" in their negotiations with Pakistan over the reopening of a crucial supply line into Afghanistan.

Obama said he didn't think that issue would be solved by the end of the NATO Summit in Chicago, but "we are making diligent progress on it."

Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met on the sidelines of the summit. Obama said while their talk was brief he "emphasized... Pakistan has to be part of the solution" in Afghanistan.

The president made the comments during a press conference at the end of the two-day meeting. It was a wide-ranging press conference that touched on things like politics, Afghanistan and missile defense.

Here are some of the other highlights:

-- "We leave Chicago with a clear road map" in Afghanistan, Obama said, adding that the allies had agreed to hand most combat operations to Afghan troops by mid-2003. All partners, he said, are committed to bringing the Afghan war to a "responsible end" by 2014.

-- NATO is moving forward with missile defense and he believes that this is an area that can be negotiated with Russia.

-- On national politics, President Obama stood by his campaign ads attacking Mitt Romney's record as the head of Bain Capital.

"If your message is, 'I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,' then you're missing what this job is about," said Obama.

The president said that the U.S. presidency is about governing for the good of everybody.

He said his job was to find out "how ... we create an economy where everybody ... has a shot of success."

-- On Greece, Obama said the world leaders agree that Greece should remain in the euro zone.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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