The State Department has hailed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s commitment to help with negotiations between Kabul and Afghan Taliban as it described President Trump’s meeting with the Pakistani leader a success.
“This meeting, of course, gave the chance for the President and the Secretary to meet with Prime Minister Khan, to build a personal connection and rapport. And now we think it’s time to make progress on the success of this first meeting,” Spokesperson Morgan D. Ortagus said at a briefing.
PM Khan held talks with President Trump a the Oval Office on July 22 in their first meeting, where both appeared before the media striking harmony on a number of issues including Afghanistan and the need to cement U.S.-Pakistan relations.
The spokesperson noted that one of the things that the prime minister Khan said was that he “vowed to urge the Taliban to negotiate with the Afghan Government.”
“We are committed to peace in Afghanistan. We think that was an important step. And there was a number of issues that were discussed not only in the President’s meeting but with the Secretary’s meeting as well, and now is the time to build upon that meeting and to build upon those commitments,” Ortagus said.
On the Pakistani prime minister’s statement that there would be good news on U.S. hostages in the next 48 hours, the spokesperson remarked:
“Well, this administration has a very strong record, actually, on getting American hostages returned. We take human lives incredibly seriously, and we will use every means available at our disposal to secure and to see the secure and safe return of American citizens who are held hostage abroad.
“The prime minister did say that. We are, of course, working closely with the Pakistanis on recovering them. We think his statements were helpful and we’re of course hopeful that there will be some action proceeding those statements.”
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