Pakistan seeks to bolster its ties with the United States beyond counter-terrorism after the withdrawal of their troops from Kabul, Foreign Minster Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday.
Addressing the session of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he said that the two countries possessed the ingredients for building a substantive and broad-based relationship.
He said Pakistan and India should fight poverty instead of waging wars with each other.
Qureshi pointed out that Prime Minister Imran Khan had warned the world that illegal actions taken by New Delhi could not dislodge Kashmiris from their just struggle to self-determination
The foreign minister said Pakistan wanted to leverage its connectivity infrastructure, including China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to boost regional trade and enhance economic integration.
The US, he said, could be an important partner in this regard.
Outlining Pakistan’s climate-friendly energy policy, he said that it offered tremendous opportunities for US companies specializing in clean and renewable energy.
Qureshi said that Pakistan and the US had joined hands to banish al Qaida leadership and core architecture. He said both countries still remained important partners. Pakistan, he said, straddled the crossroads of South and Central Asia, and offered a free market of over 220 million people.
Pakistan, Qureshi said, had shifted its focus from geo-politics to geo-economics and could work with Washington through the Development Finance Cooperation to general economic activity on Pakistan and Afghanistan border.
The minister said that an economically strong Pakistan could act as a catalyst for ushering in an era of prosperity in the region that suffered through 40 years of war in Afghanistan.
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