ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said Islamabad desired to strengthen its bilateral ties with Washington in diverse fields, local media reported on Thursday.
Addressing a ceremony in connection with the celebration of the 247th Independence Day of the US, Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan and the US had made several serious efforts to mend their relations putting aside any misunderstandings and now the ties were back to normal.
Pak-US ties
The Prime Minister also assured of his personal efforts as head of the government and as a Pakistani to promote good and stronger ties with Washington on the basis of mutual respect and trust.
Shehbaz Sharif said “Over the last 75 years, our relationships have ups and downs but on the whole we have been very good friends.”
The PM said the US was the largest trading partner of Pakistan and also a partner in the war against terrorism.
The Prime Minister remarked that in the war against terrorism, Pakistan lost more than 80,000 people and this matchless sacrifice explained Islamabad’s commitment and Washington had been a great supporter and partner in this fight.
Shehbaz Sharif said that around five years ago when Pakistan was confronting serious power outages, the then government set up 5000 mw of LNG based power plants and all equipment was brought from the US.
Shehbaz Sharif added Pakistan and the US had a huge ground to cover and expand their relations in different sectors including agriculture and IT.
He lauded the US for its support and assistance during the devastating floods in 2022.
He said, “We value support of Washington which had been the major donor and very helpful in providing relief and aid to millions of flood-hit people in the country.”
He also felicitated to US President Biden and people and government of the US on their 247th Independence Day. He maintained he also looked forward to tour of high level delegations from the US to further enhance cooperation.
On his part, the United States envoy to Pakistan Donald Blome said the economic partnership of Washington with Islamabad was expanding.
The Ambassador said, the US had been a leading investor in Pakistan and also Pakistan’s largest export market, saying during a ministerial meeting, both side made an important progress in expanding market access for services and goods.
