Capping Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan to meet with the new Sharif government, the two sides have announced the re-establishment of a “full partnership” as it was in past years.
The partnership more or less came to an end in late 2011, when US warplanes attacked a Pakistani military base along the border, killing 24 soldiers and then spending a solid year debating whether or not to officially apologize for having done so.
Between that and ongoing drone strikes, which have killed huge numbers of Pakistani civilians and sparked a massive anti-US backlash, ties between the two nations have hovered around a near-term low for two years now.
The announcement of a return to the old partnership comes amid comments from Kerry suggesting that the drone strikes may end very, very soon. Exactly what that will mean in practice remains to be seen.
