Washington, Jan. 3 (TNS): Amid tense ties between Islamabad and Washington after president Trump’s New Year tweet, a US State Department spokesperson tried to calm down situation by terming Pakistan as an important partner of the United States.
In a statement, Spokesperson Heather Nauert said that both countries benefitted from the bilateral cooperation, however observed that the Trump administration would like Islamabad to do more through cooperation.
Heather Nauert made these remarks at a briefing a day after President Trump made remarks against Pakistan in a tweet that evoke strong reaction from the government.
The US State Department spokesperson said that both Pakistan and the United States benefitted from the bilateral cooperation. “We’re not the only ones who benefit from it. But they (Pakistan) have a lot to gain through additional cooperation on the issues of terrorism.”
To a question on the reports of withholding of aid from Pakistan, she said it was not a new announcement and came out in August, but for some reasons, people got interested in it again. “But this is not a new announcement,” she added.
Asked to describe the state of the US-Pakistan relationship right now, the spokesperson said: “Pakistan is an important partner. We have a lot of issues in that region. Pakistan knows that, we all know that, and we try to work carefully together on some of those issues.”
When asked to comment on the recent tweet by President Trump, the spokesperson maintained that his “concerns” were nothing new and he had expressed that concern months ago.
When a questioner drew the attention of the spokesperson towards the praise and acknowledgement by the US government of Pakistan’s help in rescuing the Canadian-American couple from Taliban captivity and whether did that count, the spokesperson said the US government was pleased with the cooperation by Pakistan. “But they can do more,” she echoed an oft-repeated US stance.
