Clinton’s luncheon with Foreign Minister Hina Rabban Khar was among the few high-level contacts between the two countries since the November deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border US air raid from Afghanistan. Both are in London for an international conference on Somalia.

The frozen relationship has slowly begun to thaw, including in a secret meeting early this month between CIA Director David Petraeus and Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, that focused on counterterrorism cooperation and ongoing US drone attacks in Pakistan, said Washington Post.

Pakistan has said it wants to reset its relations with the United States but will not be ready to do so formally until a special parliamentary committee delivers the results of a study of the matter.

“We respect parliament’s right to ... take time to do this in a sensible way, but we had to get ready to get back into business with Pakistan” on bilateral counterterrorism issues including Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said Clinton told Khar.