Over cups of tea and the occasional cigar, the avuncular American admiral and the reserved general talk about terrorist threats and sensitive military operations in a region President Barack Obama deems the "central front" in the fight against Al-Qaeda.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he has gone out of his way to build a rapport with his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Kayani, speaking to him regularly and holding 10 face-to-face meetings since November 2007.
"I'm a big believer that the worst time to try to get to know someone is during a crisis, so this constant dialogue I have with General Kayani is vital," said Mullen, responding to questions from AFP by email.
Although the two come from different worlds -- the US admiral is the son of a successful Hollywood publicist and Kayani comes from a working-class family headed by a father who was a non-commissioned officer -- a bond of trust has begun to form, Mullen's spokesman Captain John Kirby said. <