Pakistan has cautioned the United States that lasting peace and stability in South Asia will remain elusive as long as India continues to deny the people of Held Kashmir their right to self-determination, according to a press release issued by the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to United States Asad M Khan met Senator Mitt Romney, a key US lawmaker, on Capitol Hill in Washington and briefed him on the regional situation in the backdrop of recent tensions between Pakistan and India.
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, especially 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.
Romney chairs the US 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.
Khan reiterated Pakistan’s desire to resolve the core regional dispute through dialogue.
He also thanked US President Donald Trump for playing a part in de-escalating the situation, and said Islamabad desires a long-term broad-based partnership with the US which has historically been a factor for stability in South Asia.
“As a victim of blowback from nearly 40 years of instability and violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan has long held that there is no military solution to the conflict. Pakistan is, therefore, committed to facilitating the Afghan peace process, which is ultimately the shared responsibility of all stakeholders in the region,” the ambassador said, while stressing Islamabad’s resolve to work with the US to bring peace in Afghanistan.
Romney affirmed that sustained engagement between Islamabad and Washington is critical to the regional stability.
He thanked Ambassador Khan for briefing him about the recent situation and underlined the need of undisrupted contacts between Pakistan and the United States.
Published in Daily Times, March 9th 2019.
