subject: Apology Worth £650 Millions [print this page] Apology Worth 650 Millions Apology Worth 650 Millions
The UK prime minister sparked anger in Pakistan on a trip to neighbouring India last year when he accused elements in Pakistan of promoting "the export of terror".
Some would say he blundered. The former British foreign secretary, David Miliband, says there is a difference between being a straight talker and a "loudmouth" and that Mr Cameron ignored the position of Pakistan itself as a target for Taliban terror.
Mr Cameron says he was speaking plainly.
But the incident has led to the cancellation of a visit to Britain of senior Pakistani intelligence officials and made the comments, rather than the potential for cooperation, the central talking point of a visit to London by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
But, at a news conference with the Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Mr Cameron with eyes downsaid, he believed the Pakistani government was committed to fighting terrorism within its borders but said it was "not unhelpful" to urge its ally to do everything it could to tackle the threat.
However Mr. Cameron did not apologies in clear word but to control the damage done by his unwise words in last year he pledged 650 millions for schools in Pakistan.
The prime minister, who earlier visited a school and Pakistan's national mosque, also pledged 650m of additional aid for Pakistan's schools system.
The UK will offer Pakistan 650m to help more children go to primary school He said the four-year package of support would help an extra four million children go to primary schools, train an extra 90,000 teachers and provide six million text books.
He defended the initiative, at a time when spending on public services including education is being cut in the UK, as an "investment for Britain".
"I would struggle to find a country that is more in Britain's interests to see progress and succeed than Pakistan," he added. "If Pakistan is a success, we will have a good friend to trade with and deal with in the future.
More broadly, Mr Cameron said there was no question about the strength of UK-Pakistan links.
"Britain's friendship with Pakistan is unbreakable," he said. "From the grassroots links between our peoples, with [the] one million-strong Pakistan diaspora in the UK and 1.4 million journeys between Pakistan and the UK every single year."
The two leaders also agreed to seek to double bilateral trade to 2.5bn by 2025.
