US for Pakistan's role in Afghanistan's stability

The US would like to work with Pakistan to establish stability and political settlement in Afghanistan, a senior US official said on Monday.

According to US Principal Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Alice Wells, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed this view when he stopped over in Islamabad on September 5 ahead of the first ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in New Delhi the next day.

"Secretary Pompeo's trip to Pakistan was another opportunity for the Secretary to meet with the new civilian leadership there and describe the aspirations we have for the (US-Pakistan) bilateral relationship," Wells said while briefing the Indian media over telephone from the US on the 2+2 Dialogue.

"We would like to be able to work with Pakistan to establish stability and a political settlement in Afghanistan."

Wells said the US-Pakistan relationship will be about the question of whether Washington can stop Islamabad from supporting terrorists using its soil.

"There has been a very consistent message during Secretary Pompeo's visit about our desire to work with Pakistan productively, constructively and the kind of concerns we have," she said.

She also referred to US President Donald Trump's new South Asia Strategy, describing it as a decisive step that states what the US believes needed to be done to bring stability in the region.

--IANS

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