Summary The United States and Pakistan have agreed to identify and work on the areas of common interest.
This was stated by a senior State Department official in Washington, DC while reacting on the meeting of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and Pakistan s Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar in Brussels on Monday.
"As part of their regular series of consultations, Secretary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khar and their delegations reviewed the progress in US-Pakistani relations in 2012 based on their commitment to identify shared interests and act on them jointly," he said while requesting anonymity.
"They discussed counter-terrorism cooperation, support for the Afghan-led peace process, the 2014 transition in Afghanistan and the need to move the US-Pakistan economic agenda from aid to trade, emphasizing market access and investment," he said while identifying key areas in the bilateral relationship.
The official said that both dignitaries termed the recent interactions between Pakistan and US as encouraging for the future of relationship. "They welcomed the recent meetings of the trilateral Core Group and the Law Enforcement, Economic and Defense working groups," he pointed out.
The foreign minister of Pakistan and the US Secretary of State "looked forward to meetings of the Energy and Strategic Stability working groups," he informed adding that the United States and Pakistan "will continue these engagements in the weeks and months ahead."
Earlier, responding to a question regarding the chances of reconciliation efforts with Taliban following Khar-Clinton meeting, the deputy spokesperson of the State Department, Mark Toner welcomed reports regarding reconciliation talks ongoing with the Taliban and the core group that includes Pakistan, Afghanistan.
"I think we saw last week that there were meetings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, obviously. We’ve welcomed that kind of cooperation. We want to see greater dialogue between them. Obviously our role, as well as Pakistan’s role, is the same. We want to see an Afghan-led reconciliation process," he clarified.
He also hailed the dialogue between Pakistan and Afghanistan to further the peace process in the war-torn country. "I think that we would view any kind of dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan that furthers that ultimate goal to be very positive. And certainly that’s our goal, is to play a facilitative role in this process," he maintained.
- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC
