Daily Times

WASHINGTON: United States Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells has said President Donald Trump was ‘disappointed’ after no headway was made with Pakistan over negotiations with the Taliban.

“The US president had directed that we work together with Pakistan to bring Taliban to the negotiating table, however he was disappointed after no headway was made,” she told a private TV channel. “We have still not found a way to work more closely with Pakistan to ensure Taliban come to the negotiation table,” she said. “I can assure you through my own efforts that we are always looking for opportunities to strengthen our relationships,” she said, but asserted, “These set of issues will continue to be important.”

Regarding Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s scheduled meeting in Washington, Wells said, “They will discuss important points regarding strong partnership. The most important issue between the two countries is how to work on bilateral relations.” Wells said, “There are investment opportunities in energy and other sectors in Pakistan and US is looking forward to strengthening its trading ties.”

A day earlier, in an interview with BBC Urdu, Wells had said that US wants ‘positive and constructive’ relations with Pakistan. “Pakistan is an important country in the region [South Asia] with an important part to play,” she had said.

Responding to a question regarding the expectations from the new government in Pakistan, the US diplomat had said, “We have the same expectations from Pakistan that we have from other countries in South Asia. We comply with South Asia’s policy of eradicating non-state actors and want to eliminate terrorist activities and proxies in the region.”

Published in Daily Times, September 30^th 2018.