WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry has said that Pakistan is looking for sustainable and not a transactional relationship with the US.
While addressing at the ambassador series program organized by the World Affairs Council in Washington, the envoy described the Pak-US relationship as tremendously important, and said that Pakistan sought to have a broad-based and sustainable relationship with the United States.
“Whenever Pakistan and the US worked together in the past, both the countries benefited and it had yielded positive results,” the ambassador said.
Responding to a question on Afghanistan, he said that “peace in Afghanistan is our top priority and a stable, prosperous and developed Afghanistan is not only in the favour of Pakistan but the entire region.”
The envoy said that Pakistan wanted systematic border management along he Pak-Afghan border in order to check the cross border movement of miscreants effectively.
Aizaz Chaudhry observed that the US had made massive investment in Afghanistan over the years and would be interested in taking it to its logical conclusion. The first and foremost goal of the US in Afghanistan must be to strengthen Afghan National Security forces, he added.
The ambassador pointed out that there was a tendency to put blame on Pakistan for failure in Afghanistan which was not true, adding that Afghanistan had multiple problems which was not related to terrorism only.
“Pakistan cannot be made a scapegoat,” he said and reiterated that it firmly believed that a comprehensive approach was required to find an amicable solution of the Afghan problem.
“There is no military solution to the Afghanistan issue. A comprehensive political strategy is required,” he added.
The ambassador reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to eliminating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
The Pakistani envoy clarified that Pakistan would never allow its soil to be used against any other country and expected that no other country would allow anyone to operate from there against Pakistan.
While responding a question related to Pak-India relations, the ambassador said that India had suspended the dialogue process which did not serve any purpose and had further deteriorated the bilateral relations between the two countries. He said that terrorism was a common enemy and both countries should cooperate with each other.
“Pakistan is ready for a dialogue with India whenever it is ready,” he said.
On the lingering issue of Kashmir, the ambassador said that Pakistan would continue to support innocent Kashmiris diplomatically, morally and politically.
“India is using force and committing horrendous human rights violations which breeds hatred among Kashmiris against Indian occupation forces. Indian Occupation forces have blinded approx. 1000 Kashmiris by using pellet guns,” he said.
Commenting upon China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and One Belt-One Road Chinese initiative, he remarked that Pakistan’s good relations with China were not a zero sum game for any other country including the US.
“Pakistan wants to have a broad-based, mutually beneficial relationship with China and the US at the same time,” he added.
