Pakistan, US need to collaborate for common objectives: PM

ISLAMABAD (APP): Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi emphasised on Friday the importance of improving engagement between Pakistan and the United States.

Abbasi said this while speaking to US Ambassador David Hale in Islamabad.

The premier said that Pakistan and US need to collaborate to pursue common objectives and issues of mutual interest.

Both the prime minister and US ambassador agreed that the relation between the two countries should be strengthened through multi-faceted engagement.

During a meeting with Afghan Ambassador Omar Zakhilwal, Abbasi reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to peace and stability in the region with special focus on Afghanistan.

He also expressed his support for reconciliation between the two the neighbouring countries.

On the other hand, Zakhilwal said that Afghan government is willing to improve bilateral relations with Pakistan. The bilateral relations between the two countries have significant historical, cultural, economic and political linkages, he added.

US-Pakistan relations have frayed since President Donald Trump last month set out a new Afghanistan policy and lashed out at nuclear-armed Pakistan as a fickle ally that gives safe haven to “agents of chaos” by harboring the Afghan Taliban and other militants.

The United States has already begun conditioning future aid to Pakistan on progress Islamabad makes in tackling the Haqqani network, who it alleges are Pakistan-based and have helped the Taliban carry out deadly attacks inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies hosting militant sanctuaries, and Islamabad bristles at claims it has not done enough to tackle militancy, noting it has borne the brunt of violence in the so-called war on terror, suffering more than 60,000 casualties since 2001.