Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday for talks on the region beset with multiple crises including Afghan uncertainty, Iranian unrest and Kashmir siege, all on borders of Pakistan which is considered critical to the Trump Administration’s goal of smooth withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The State Department meeting took place as Tehran faces a stiff resistance from people at home while U.S.-Iran tensions remain high following a spate of events including attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, U.S. killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iran’s launch of rockets at the American bases in Iraq.
The two diplomats looked at the state of U.S.-Pakistan bilateral relationship that Qureshi said before the meeting should move to broad-based cooperation away from concerns over Afghan conflict. U.S.-Pakistan ties have improved considerably in recent months with Islamabad’s support for Afghan peace talks and Washington’s restoration of a military training program for Pakistani officers.
Prior to his visit to the United States, Foreign Minister Qureshi made trips to Iran and Saudi Arabia for talks on defusing yet another standoff on Pakistan’s frontiers. He has urged the U.S. and Iran restraint in the wake of inflammatory incidents that threaten to further destabilize the broader Middle East, particularly South Asia and the Gulf region.
The Pakistani foreign minister also drew U.S. attention to the suffocating clampdown in Indian-administered Kashmir, which continues into the sixth month since New Delhi’s revocation of the disputed region’s autonomy in August 2019.
Meanwhile, tense Pakistan-India relations since BJP Government’s move on Kashmir have been hovering over the regional scenario.
President Trump last year offered to mediate between Pakistan and India on the thorny Kashmir question when he received Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Oval Office in July. The U.S. president has renewed his offer to mediate on several occasions but Indian PM Narendra Modi has spurned all such offers and has taken steps to make Kashmir – a UN-recognized disputed territory – part of the Indian Union.
Washington has close ties with both Pakistan and India. While the U.S. has called for Indian restraint and lifting of restriction in Kashmir, it has avoided publicly condemning Nyiuew Delhi, which has been buying expensive American defense equipment and is widely seen as a counterweight to a rising China.
UPDATED AT 3:45 PM (EST)
