US, Pakistan must move beyond past events: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has stressed that the United States and Pakistan must move beyond past events and engage in a far broader, deeper and more meaningful relationship.He said the US and Pakistan must move beyond past tensions over Afghanistan and expressed the confidence that the two countries were now entering a new engagement. Referring to his meetings with top US diplomats, including a discussion with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he called the meeting with Blinken very encouraging and very positive and productive. “We believe that Pakistan must continue to engage with the United States at all levels. This meeting was indeed an important first step,” Bilawal said in an interview with the Associated Press in New York, last week during his stay in the US, where he had been attending meetings on the global food crisis at the UN headquarters.

The foreign minister said his focus in talks with Blinken was on increasing trade, particularly in agriculture, information technology and energy. He said he was looking forward to working with the US on an initiative to empower women including women entrepreneurs.

About Afghanistan, he said the world could not abandon Afghan people and must immediately address the country’s rights and a terrorism-free country.

Asked about former prime minister Imran Khan’s accusation of American collusion, calling it a fanciful conspiracy theory based on a big lie to explain his removal. he said and added: “If we consistently pursue the politics of ‘either you are with us or against us’, I don“What motivates and drives me is the pursuit of their unfulfilled mission,” he said and added: “I hope that we will live up to the expectations of the people of Pakistan, who have longed for true democracy and struggled for their economic, political and human rights. These are the ideals that we hold dear.”