Relations with US on the mend

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani, US envoy Angela discuss bilateral ties

ISLAMABAD:

The new government has begun engagement with the Biden administration as US Chargé d'affaires Angela Aggeler on Tuesday met Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and discussed bilateral issues.

This is the first formal contact between the two sides since the controversy surrounding the infamous diplomatic cable stirred a political storm in Pakistan.

An official handout issued by the Foreign Office suggested that the coalition government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was willing to move on from the scandal and focus on repairing the relations.

The statement said the minister of state told the US diplomat that Pakistan viewed the relationship with Washington with ‘respect’ and was ready to enhance cooperation based on equality and mutual respect.

No further details were provided but official sources indicated that the meeting was part of efforts to get the ties back on track.

Also read: FO wants to move on from ‘foreign plot’ to focus on diplomacy

Relations between Pakistan and the US remained frosty ever since Joe Biden came to power in the United States. Breaking the tradition, Biden never telephoned former prime minister Imran Khan.

The engagement between the two sides also remained low causing frustration among the previous government. The ousted prime minister often complained that Pakistan’s efforts to ensure safe exit to the US forces from Afghanistan were never acknowledged.

Amid all this, the former prime minister accused the US for ousting him from power through the opposition’s vote of no confidence since he claimed to have pursued an independent foreign policy.

The bases of his claims were the diplomatic cable sent by Pakistan’s former Ambassador to Washington Asad Majid on March 7 which Imran claimed contained evidence of a foreign plot.

The cable detailed a conversation between the Pakistani ambassador and the US official. The cable suggested that the US was not happy with the former Prime Minister’s visit to Russia at the height of the Ukraine crises and warned of consequences if the vote of no confidence against him did not succeed.

Also read: Resentment in FO over politicising diplomatic cable

However, Pakistan’s security agencies could not find any corroborative evidence to suggest that there was a foreign conspiracy against the former Prime Minister.

The Foreign Office spokesperson the other day stressed that the matters should now be put to rest as the National Security Committee (NSC) already concluded that there was no foreign conspiracy.

Asim Iftikhar urged all sides to avoid giving irresponsible statements and insisted that the focus should be on diplomacy and improving relationship with the US in the best interests of Pakistan.