US, Pakistan eye entrenched relations

Pakistan and the United States reaffirmed their commitment on Saturday to further deepen bilateral relations, with both sides stressing the need to translate recent high-level political resolve into tangible cooperation across economic and strategic domains.

The development followed a meeting between Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Rizwan Saeed Sheikh and S. Paul Kapur, the newly appointed US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, who took charge on October 22.

The discussions, held at the State Department, were described by both sides as cordial and forward-looking.

Ambassador Sheikh said the meeting focused on "practical ways" to convert leadership-level pledges into a sustained partnership.

"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," the envoy said in a post on X.

Kapur, in his own message on X, said it was a "pleasure" to meet the Pakistani ambassador. "We discussed ways to advance the US-Pakistan relationship and make our countries more prosperous and secure," he added.