Daily Times

Pakistan and the United States need to regularly hold meetings, and these meetups should be a part of standard practice between the two countries, a US State Department spokesperson said.

Spokesman Vedant Patel avoided commenting on the recent meeting of Pakistan’s ambassador at the State Department.

“The US meets with Pakistani officials and vice versa regularly at regular intervals. As standard practice, we don’t comment on the specifics and don’t get into private diplomatic engagements as well,” he said, replying to a question about Pakistan’s ambassador, Sardar Masood Khan’s meeting at the US State Department.

“The US has always viewed a secure and prosperous Pakistan as critical to its interests. The US values longstanding cooperation with Pakistan,” he said.

Patel said that there are very few countries that were hit by terrorism like Pakistan. The counterterrorism effort is part of our common interests, he said.

He said that organizations like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) pose a serious threat to the region, and the US seeks a strong partnership with Pakistan to combat terrorism.

“Few countries have suffered from terrorism like Pakistan. The US has a shared interest in combating threats to regional instability and regional security like the TTP,” he said.

The US hopes Pakistan will take action against global and regional terrorist organizations, he added.

“We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counterterrorism and expect sustained action against all militant and terrorist groups. We look forward to the cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats,” he added.