At the White House, President Obama weighed in on U.S. ties with Pakistan, saying he agrees with Admiral Mike Mullen’s recent claim that Pakistani intelligence has ties to the militant group blamed for a series of attacks inside Afghanistan.

President Obama: “What we’ve tried to persuade Pakistan of is that it is in their interest to have a stable Afghanistan, that they should not be feeling threatened by a stable, independent Afghanistan. We’ve tried to get conversations between Afghans and Pakistanis going more effectively than they have been in the past. But we’ve — we’ve still got more work to do. And there is no doubt that there’s some connections that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling. And I’ve said that publicly, and I’ve said it privately to Pakistani officials, as well.”