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Summary Victoria Nuland has said American administration wants a stable, peaceful and democratic Pakistan.
The spokesperson of the US State Department, Victoria Nuland has said that American administration wants a stable, peaceful and democratic Pakistan and wants to revive the relationship to the level where it was before the troubles in the recent past. Responding to the remarks of Pakistani ambassador Sherry Rehman, who had spoken at an event earlier on Wednesday about the analogy of embrace of love, hate, life, death, and sometimes divorce in the relationship with Pakistan, Ms. Nuland said “divorce is not an option with Pakistan from our perspective”.“We have strategic interests in common, and a lot of work to do together. We have a national interest in a Pakistan that is increasingly stable, peaceful, free of terror, democratic, etc etc. So we are continuing to do a lot of work together, and we’re looking forward to the completion of Pakistan’s internal review of our military-to-military relationship so we can get back to all the important work we have together”, she emphasized. On another question about Sherry Rehman’s assertion of “trade-not-aid based relations” with the US, the spokesperson said that even Secretary Clinton had been one of the most vocal advocates of switching as much of the American economic relationship with Pakistan from aid to trade. “That’s been the focus of the Department’s efforts with the Pakistani Government over the last couple of years, and some of the internal reviews we’ve done are focused on that. So we are investing in the economic health and strength of the country”, she stressed.On a question about channeling US aid to Pakistani development projects, she pointed out that the US was investing in energy, education, democratic institutions, development, micro-lending, people-to-people contacts and other such programmes. “So it’s not about improving our image. It’s about helping to strengthen a stable, peaceful, democratic Pakistan”, she opined.However, she was clueless on the question as to why the US was reluctant to grant preferential quota for textile exports to Pakistan, which they had been demanding since 2001, if it was serious in helping out the ally in the “war-on-terror”. She was also unsure whether the issue of participation of banned religious outfits in the Difa-i-Pakistan Council rallies was raised by the US with Pakistan.She also denied that Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter had suggested a further decline in the Pak-US security cooperation relations after the retirement of incumbent DG ISI Gen. Pasha. “I think you over-read what he said. He said we have had productive relationships with the current chief, that there will be a change of chief, and we’ll have to work on establishing the same kinds of relationships and even take it to the next level if we can”, Ms. Nuland observed.Commenting on the current level of expectation within the US administration regarding relationship with Pakistan, she agreed agreed that a lot of work needed to be done in this regard. “Obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do with Pakistan. We continue to do a lot of work. And we want to get to the point where we can continue and get back to where we were when the internal Pakistani review of aspects of the relationship is complete”, she maintained.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC
