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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. The goal is no more 9/11's. And the path to that goal may lie in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That's why President Barack Obama is meeting with the leaders of both countries today at the White House. It's part of a United States effort to stabilize the region and overcome the threat posed by Islamic extremists. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned today that progress will take time.

HILLARY CLINTON: An ancient Afghan proverb says, “Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet.”

MULLINS: The BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus, has been following the story. First question very simple: what is at stake here?

JONATHAN MARCUS: A huge amount is at stake. I mean, obviously the Obama administration has identified the fact that the problems in Afghanistan and in Pakistan are linked. They need to be tackled in their own separate ways but together. That is the aspiration of the new administration in Washington. What it needs is it needs a commitment from the two governments involved, and this series of meetings, both with Hillary Clinton and with President Barack Obama, this is the first effort to really try and shift the balance to shift the way in which these problems are pursued by the two governments.

MULLINS: Well, Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, did indeed mention that today in his press conference with Hillary Clinton and Asif Ali Zardari, his counterpart in Pakistan. They have been talking kind of surprisingly, I think, in a rather brotherly way today. Here's a little bit of what Hamid Karzai himself said.

HAMID KARZAI: Pakistan and Afghanistan are conjoined twins. Our suffering is shared. Our joys are always shared.

MULLINS: And also, President Zardari of Pakistan seemed to be in a sharing mood today, at least outwardly, in what he was talking about. He pledged full cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

ASIF ALI ZARDARI: Our threat is common, and our responsibilities should be shared. I'm here to assure you that we shall share this burden with you all.

MULLINS: Well, that must have been encouraging and emboldening on the one hand for Hillary Clinton to hear and Barack Obama to hear as well, but it begs the question: why does either one need to say that, that the burden is shared? How worried is Washington about, say, Pakistan's ability or even willingness to enter the fray?

MARCUS: Well, I think to the extent that both Presidents in Afghanistan and Pakistan are making positive noises, that is good. But what matters is really what they do when they go home, whether they actually start addressing in serious terms the threats that they both face. I think the interesting thing is that in just a few weeks since the Obama administration announced its new policy, I think very quickly Pakistan itself has become the major problem facing the United States. There is great concern about the willingness of Pakistan's military to really confront the Taliban-like groups, the insurgents that are fighting the government seem to be doing rather well, in military terms. And there is I think a very strong feeling amongst the American side that in Pakistan, there is just simply not a sufficient understanding that the real threats to the country come from these kinds of insurgents and not from India, which is perceived by many in Pakistan as the real traditional enemy of the country. However whether that fundamentally has changed when the Pakistan president goes home, and of course that remains to be seen.

MULLINS: Well, what's the importance of Afghanistan and Pakistan working together? Even if Hamid Karzai says, “we're conjoined twins. Our fates rise and fall together.” How do you square the circle of this alliance, which in the past has been a very uneasy alliance, to the extent it's an alliance at all. I mean, when Karzai, Zardari of Afghanistan and Pakistan say they'll work together and be transparent, is there reason to trust those remarks?

MARCUS: I think it's going to be a difficult relationship. There's no doubt about that. I think the pressures coming from Washington are going to be very strong indeed. That is going to change the balance, if you like, change the equation somewhat, but I think it's still very much an open question. This is very much a work in progress. It's by no means clear that the authorities in Pakistan really see the problems in quite the same way as the Obama administration does, so this is early days yet. But this, as I say, is the first effort by the Obama administration to take the arguments of the new policy in Washington and lay it out absolutely clearly and unequivocally to the two presidents of the two countries involved.

MULLINS: The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus, in London. Thanks very much.

MARCUS: Thank you.

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