Updated on
Summary Victoria Nuland said US remains committed to strong, mutually respectful relationship with Pakistan.
The United States “remains committed to a strong, mutually respectful” relationship with Pakistan and Washington’s civilian assistance for the South Asian country has not been affected in the aftermath of November 26 strikes on Pakistani border posts, the State Department said Friday.“We consider bilateral US civilian assistance to be an important component of that relationship and believe it can help Pakistan become a more prosperous, stable, and democratic state, which serves the national interests of both the United States and Pakistan,” the Office of spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in response to a question taken at the daily briefing.“Civilian assistance to Pakistan continues and has not been interrupted since the tragic November 26 incident,” the spokesperson noted. The November 26 attacks on Pakistani check posts claimed lives of two dozen Pakistani soldiers, angering the Pakistani nation and the government. After the incident, Islamabad closed NATO supply routes and initiated a full review of ties with the United States, which is nearing its completion.To a question Victoria Nuland said that US special envoy Marc Grossman wanted to go to Islamabad but did not apply for visa and the news that he was denied visa by Pakistan is not correct.She further said that our ambassador and our embassy are in contact with the Pakistanis on a daily basis. Our civilian assistance is continuing to flow. Our full range of programmes that we do on economic support, infrastructure, all of these, educational things are going forward. Pakistanis are, as you’ve seen, engaged in some intensive discussions among themselves. They did not judge that it was timely to have these conversations, but they did make clear that they want to do it at a future date, and frankly, we need to give them the space that they need to work on their issues so that we can have a good set of meetings when they are ready. And Ambassador Grossman has made clear, the Secretary has made clear that when they’re ready, he will come back.
