NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Asad M. Khan, met Senator Mitt Romney, a key U.S. lawmaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington Thursday and briefed him on the regional situation in the backdrop of recent tensions between Pakistan and India.
A M. Khan told Senator Romney, a Republican who was a presidential candidate in the 2012 elections, that the “restraint and maturity” shown by Pakistan’s leadership, highlighted by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision to release the pilot of a downed Indian war plane, had been critical to de-escalating the situation between the two countries, according to a press release issued by the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
The Pakistani envoy also appreciated the role played by the Trump Administration in this regard.
Senator Romney has recently assumed chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on South Asia. He also serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as well as the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions and the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committees.
Pakistan, he told the senator, desired a long-term and broad-based partnership with the United States, which had historically been a factor for stability in South Asia.
The Ambassador cautioned that lasting peace and stability in South Asia would remain elusive as long as India continues to deny the people of Occupied Kashmir their legitimate right to self-determination. He reiterated Pakistan’s desire to resolve the core regional dispute through dialogue.
Pakistan also wanted to work with the United States to bring peace to Afghanistan, the ambassador said. As a victim of blowback from nearly 40 years of instability and violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan had long held that there was no military solution to the conflict. Pakistan was, therefore, committed to facilitating the Afghan peace process, which was ultimately the shared responsibility of all stakeholders in the region’s stability.
Sen. Romney thanked the Ambassador for his briefing. He agreed that sustained engagement between Pakistan and the United States remained critical to regional stability, the press release added.
