In India-Pakistan push, Gates faced hard questions

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US Defense Secretary Robert Gates' charm offensive in India and Pakistan ran into tough questions ranging from border tensions and drones to nuclear weapons and Islamic insurgents.

Here are some questions and answers relating to key challenges he faced during his Jan. 19-22 trip and what these challenges mean for regional US policy going forward.

Can US rebuild trust in Pakistan?
Gates acknowledged a "trust deficit" with Pakistan and that resolving it won't be easy or quick. But he attempted to address conspiracy theories undermining perceptions about the United States, including suspicions that Washington is secretly planning to grab Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

He told a gathering of officers at the prestigious National Defence University that this was part of an "organized propaganda campaign" by insurgents to discredit the United States. He also took questions from the officers on a range issues, including the war in Afghanistan.

"That kind of interaction is quite critical," said Shuja Nawaz, a Pakistan expert who directs the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, saying it would impact subsequent conversations within the Pakistani military.

Gates, on his first trip to Islamabad since 2007, also addressed suspicions with Pakistan's media, telling one interviewer: "We have no intention or desire to take over any of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. We have no desire to occupy any part of Pakistan or split up any part of Pakistan. We have no intent to split the Islamic world."

What about drones?
Gates explicitly sought to have a candid dialogue with Pakistanis, but ran into trouble when reporters asked him about secret CIA drone strikes against insurgents, which critics say fuel anti-American sentiment. Gates was forced to repeat the standard line: "I am not going to talk about operations."

At one point, a frustrated Pakistani reporter asked him: if you won't talk, who will?

Gates joked: "I hope you don't find anybody."

He said the United States would supply surveillance drones to Pakistan. But a U.S. military official played down any immediate impact the new drones will have on operations, saying it could take years for Pakistan's military to learn how to use them and process the surveillance data.

Do India and Pakistan see insurgents as a common enemy?
In both New Delhi and Islamabad, Gates appeared to focus on the common threat of Islamic extremism that both countries share, but reporters repeatedly returned to questions about India-Pakistan tensions.

A U.S. military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described Pakistanis as divided over whether India or insurgents were the real threat and added he did not know "how this debate is going to end up."

In New Delhi, Gates acknowledged that India might lose its diplomatic patience if it suffered another attack like the 2008 strike in Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants. He said militants would like to provoke a war between India and Pakistan.

Gates was repeatedly asked in public about whether Washington might take up a mediating role. But US officials said neither Pakistani nor Indian leaders requested such assistance during closed-door meetings with Gates. The defense secretary said both nations seemed to want to deal with each other bilaterally.

How do arms sales factor into the debate?
Gates encouraged India to consider buying US military equipment that would bring both militaries closer together, but then had the difficult task in Pakistan of soothing concerns that such an arrangement would undermine Pakistani security.

Gates said in Islamabad: "I think we have to make these decisions (on defense sales) judiciously. But we also don't want simply to turn over these military relationships to other countries that don't have as many scruples as we do in terms of making those decisions."

A US military official, briefing reporters in Pakistan, noted that the United States had provided F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad, but added that would hardly alter the strategic balance in the region.

"Another squadron of F-16s will just mean they would lose the next war with India a little slower. They're not going to defeat India because we gave them a squadron of F-16s. The military overmatch that India enjoys is just too large."

Is the US psuhing for more from Pakistan?
Gates stressed the need to go after all militant groups, not just the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban attacking the state.

But instead of renewing previous US calls for Islamabad to "do more," Gates was full of praise for Pakistan's efforts against insurgents over the past year and did not press on the pace of future operations.

He said Pakistan would decide "when they are ready to do something or whether they are going to do it at all."

"The way I like to express it is: We're in this car together, but the Pakistanis are in the driver's seat and have their foot on the accelerator. And that's just fine with me."

A Pakistani military spokesman told reporters traveling with Gates that there would not be any offensives in the next six months to a year because the armed forces risked being overstretched.

What did Gates say about Afghanistan?
In Pakistan, Gates repeatedly stressed in talks with the government, the military and the media that US President Barack Obama's objective to begin drawing down forces in Afghanistan in 2011 did not mean there would be a broad pullout at that point.

He also acknowledged concerns in both India and Pakistan about the other country's activities in Afghanistan.

"If there are back channel discussions (between India and Pakistan), one useful subject would be to have a transparent exchange of information on what each country is doing in Afghanistan," he said.