‘Coronavirus opened up new territory of cooperation’

Islamabad : Paul W Jones, Charge d’ Affaires, US Embassy, has said that his country focuses on expanding its humanitarian, political and commercial cooperation with Islamabad amid and in post COVID-19 pandemic to the mutual benefits of both the peoples and the countries while respecting Pakistan taking its decisions as an important country in the region.

Mr Jones was peaking at the Policy Dialogue Series on ‘Pakistan-United States cooperation amid COVID-19’ arranged by Sustainable Development Policy Institutes here Tuesday.

Mr Jones said that the Coronavirus hit hard the US and still it is impacting huge number of people. Pakistan is also facing a grave crisis due to the pandemic, he said adding that the US wants Pakistan to succeed in its fight against the virus.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, drew some similarities between the pandemic situation of the US and Pakistan. He said that both the countries have devised appropriate strategies and policies to keep a fine balance between economy and health. He raised certain questions for Ambassador Jones including the US Pakistan cooperation amid Coronavirus pandemic, the potential US support to Pakistan’s plea for debt rescheduling and impact of COVID-19 on Afghan peace process.

Responding to the questions, Ambassador Jones said the Washington is closely connected to Islamabad leadership since the pandemic broke. President Donald Trump spoke to Prime Minister Imran Khan and expressed the support for Pakistan’s actions to fight against the pandemic. Mr Jones said the US leadership believes that expansion in commercial and political relations between the two countries should emerge stronger amid current situation. He also talked about the issue of debt rescheduling request by Pakistan, and support of USA. Moreover, US also has supported extending loans and grants to Pakistan like IMF US$1.4 billion and support by World Bank and other financial institutions.

The Ambassador Jones said we have now entered in health partnership with Pakistan on a long-term basis and stepped up cooperation. He said Pakistan is among top priority countries in terms of the US health partnership on pandemic. Within 48 hours of the request, the USAID came to support NDMA and other government agencies adding the US allocated millions of dollars in a new funding for Pakistan for testing of virus in badly hit areas. The US health support also included technical training and assistance and we are upgrading health emergency centers in provinces in Pakistan, he continued. The best part is that Americans are not supporting only through government to government cooperation but the US private sector companies operating in Pakistan are also spending huge sums from their Corporate Social Responsibility and humanitarian support funds to provide humanitarian assistance to low income families.

On Afghanistan, the ambassador said that the US provides support to the Afghan refugees and their host communities in Pakistan. He said that we believe that it is in our mutual interest that we reach to a peaceful settlement of Afghanistan issue. We are working in this regard. There are political differences in Afghanistan which needs to be resolved he said urging that there is a need that more progress is made on prisoners’ release and reduction of violence there. If there is a successfully negotiated settlement of the issue, we can foresee prosperity and economic development in the region, he added.

Ambassador Jones concluded by saying that our strong relations are important to the people of both countries as Coronavirus opened up a new territory of cooperation. We need to pool in resources of governments, civils society and businesses to extend cooperation between the two peoples and the states. There is a time now to expand our relations in trade and economy sectors.