WASHINGTON: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Pakistan and India next month for a series of bilateral meetings, the State Department has announced on Monday.
Sherman, after Central Investigation Agency (CIA) chief Bill Burns, will be one of the first high-level officials under President Joe Biden to visit Pakistan. She will meet senior officials in Islamabad on October 7-8 after an earlier visit to New Delhi and Mumbai on October 6-7, the State Department said.
During India visit, Sherman will meet officials and civil society leaders and address the US-India Business Council’s annual “ideas summit”, the State Department added. She will also hold meetings with the business community.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told US lawmakers weeks ago that Washington would need to re-assess its relationship with Islamabad.
Last week, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met Antony Blinken to discuss Afghanistan — specifically, coordinating diplomatic engagement and facilitating the departure of those who wanted to leave Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Qureshi said that close engagement between Pakistan and the United States had always been mutually beneficial and a factor for stability in South Asia. He reiterated Pakistan’s desire for a balanced relationship with the US that was anchored in trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity.
The foreign minister also reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to facilitating efforts for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan. Pakistan, he said, also believed that “only a stable and broad-based government in Afghanistan, which reflects its diversity and preserves the gains made by the country since 2001, would be able to ensure that Afghan territory is never exploited by transnational terrorist groups ever again”.
