Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States (US) Ali Jahangir Siddiqui on Monday said that Pakistan was determined and committed to ending regional conflict.
In an interview to a Bloomberg TV, Siddiqui asserted that peace in Afghanistan was his top priority policy.
He added that Pakistan was working on a second portion of a fence at its border with Afghanistan. Siddiqui maintained the view that the fence was a clear sign of Pakistan’s interest in bringing the lingering regional conflict to an end.
However, President Donald Trump has previously accused Pakistan of harbouring ‘agents of chaos’ and providing safe havens within its territory that wage insurgency on the US-backed Afghan government.
Earlier, US Army General Austin Miller, Trump’s nominee to head the US-led Afghan coalition had said that “we have not seen these counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants translate into definitice actions against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders residing in Pakistan”.
While referring to the general’s comments, Siddiqui said that it was unreasonable to accuse Pakistan of doing nothing until she completes the second fence.
Upon being asked about Pakistan’s economic imbalance, Siddiqui asserted that a structural change was the need of the hour to turn the decreasing forex reserves, widening current account and trade deficits favorable for the country’s economy.
The Pakistani envoy said that Pakistan was under the clutches of major energy shortage, which affects its textile exports. He added that the US natural gas can be a key that can diversify the nation’s energy supply if trade relations are expanded between the two countries.
Siddiqui said that Pakistan could be a potentially large market for the US, which is becoming the world’s largest LNG exporter only if such a trade relation can occur.
Trade between Pakistan and US have stalled about $5.5 billion in goods a year over the past decade. US mainly exports machinery and aircrafts to Pakistan while the latter exports textile and leather products.