ISLAMABAD: Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari received a phone call from Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state, the foreign office said on Wednesday, adding that the two leaders had stressed improving trade and commercial ties during their conversation.
Bhutto-Zardari, who assumed office in April in the new cabinet of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has stressed he wants to pivot away from a single-issue transactional relationship with the United States that revolved around neighboring Afghanistan and repair frayed ties with Washington.
Sharif took over in April after ex-PM Imran Khan lost a confidence vote moved by a united opposition, that blamed him for mismanaging the economy, governance and foreign relations.
Khan had antagonized the United States throughout his tenure, welcoming the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and more recently accusing Washington of being behind the attempt to oust him. Washington has dismissed the accusation.
“Reiterated mutual commitment to deepen Pak-US ties,” the foreign office said in a tweet, listing issues discussed during the phone call between the Pakistani FM and Blinken. “Looked forward to frequent exchange of high-level visits. Requested to ease issuance of visas for Pakistani nationals.”
The two leaders also stressed the need to solidify trade and commercial ties and reaffirmed mutual cooperation in the energy, health, security and economic development sectors.
They also discussed the need for continuous engagement with the Taliban government in Afghanistan to deal with a humanitarian crisis.
Last year, Blinken said the United States would be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the weeks after the Taliban take over of Kabul in August after the withdrawal of US-led forces and formulate what role Washington would want it to play in the future of Afghanistan.
Blinken told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in September that Pakistan had a “multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict with ours.”
“It is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it’s one that’s involved harboring members of the Taliban ... It is one that’s also involved in different points cooperation with us on counterterrorism,” Blinken said.
Asked by lawmakers if it was time for Washington to reassess its relationship with Pakistan, Blinken said the administration would soon be doing that.
“This is one of the things we’re going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead — the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that,” he said.
Pakistan has had deep ties with the Afghan Taliban and has been accused of supporting the group as it battled the US-backed government in Kabul for 20 years — charges denied by Islamabad.
It is also considered as one of the two countries, along with Qatar, with the most influence over the Taliban, and a place where many senior Taliban leaders were thought to have escaped to after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
