The United States and Pakistan early on Saturday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries, with Islamabad’s envoy describing it as an effort to build an “economically entrenched strategic partnership“.

The development came as S. Paul Kapur — who assumed charge as the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs on October 22 — met Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh at the State Department for what was described as a cordial and forward-looking exchange.

Ambassador Sheikh said the two sides explored practical ways to translate recent high-level political resolve into concrete cooperation.

“We discussed the ways and means of translating the resolve — expressed at the leadership level — of developing Pakistan–US ties into an economically entrenched strategic partnership, through sustained engagement in multiple domains of mutual interest,” he said in a post on social media platform X.

Meanwhile, Kapur said it was a “pleasure” to meet the Pakistani envoy.

“We discussed ways to advance the US-Pakistan relationship and make our countries more prosperous and secure,” he said........

© Dawn Business