Pak FM seeks to broaden US ties
Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Thursday he would like to pivot away from single-issue transactional relationship with the United States as he seeks to repair frayed ties with Washington.
"Our relationship with the United States has been colored too much by the geopolitical context in our region, and particularly by the events and circumstances in Afghanistan," Bhutto-Zardari told reporters at the United Nations during his first visit to the United States as foreign minister.
"We would like to pivot away from a transactory relationship, a one point agenda relationship, to a more broad-based relationship with a particular emphasis on trade," he said a day after meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Bhutto-Zardari also said he was not concerned about competing with neighboring India when it came to ties with Washington. The United States and India are part of a Quad security grouping of nations with Australia and Japan.
"Pakistan is not insecure about our relationship with the United States and we believe that the world is big enough for both Pakistan and India to exist," he said.
However he said there was little scope for dialogue with India as he denounced actions by the historic rival in divided Kashmir.
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