Meeting with Tillerson ‘positive’, US secretary to visit Pak this month: Kh Asif

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday termed his meeting with US Secretary of State ‘positive’ and invited him to visit Islamabad, which he accepted.

Talking to Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Kh Asif said he told the Secretary that India has no role in Afghanistan.

In a separate statement to media, Tillerson too, sound positive with his meeting with Pakistani counterpart. ‘Pakistan-US relationship is extraordinarily important regionally,’ he said.

“I have invited the Secretary to visit and he graciously accepted it and will be traveling to Pakistan later this month,” Asif said adding that a high-level US delegation is also coming to asses our position on new US Afghan policy.

While announcing new Afghan policy, President Donald Trump had lashed out at Pakistan and accused it of harboring terrorists. This angered Islamabad, which launched a strong protest with the US government.

Kh Asif said Secretary Tillerson listened to our concerned carefully. ‘We told him that Pakistan has paid a high price of war against terrorism and that we are sincere in fighting this menace and eradicating it completely.’

On giving India role in Afghanistan, the foreign minister said, Pakistan is not happy with this approach as New Dehli is involved in destabilizing Pakistan.

After the meeting with his Pakistan counterpart, Tillerson said: “..as we rolled out the South Asia strategy, we spoke about it in a regional context. It is not just about Afghanistan. This is about the importance of Pakistan, and Pakistan’s long-term stability as well”.

“We have concerns about the future of Pakistan’s government too, in terms of them – we want their government to be stable. We want it to be peaceful. And many of the same issues they’re struggling with inside of Pakistan are our issues. So we think there is opportunity for us to strengthen that relationship.”

During his US visit, the foreign minister will meet US National Security Adviser Lt Gen HR McMaster tomorrow and is also scheduled to address a gathering at US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington on US-Pakistan relations.