News
Thursday, September 13, 2012
US hails Indo-Pak progress in Islamabad meetingWASHINGTON: The United States has welcomed the progress Pakistan and India made during their top diplomats’ meeting in Islamabad, particularly on easing visa processing for visitors in some categories.
Commenting on the outcome of the meeting between Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and her Indian counterpart SM Krishna, the US State Department reaffirmed Washington’s backing for peace moves between the two South Asian nations. The two nuclear neighbours are pursuing a peace process to improve bilateral ties but still have to approach some longstanding issues, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) dispute. The Islamabad meeting was the latest in a series of developments between the two countries as they seek to push the process towards normalisation of relations.
“We strongly support increasing contact at the high-level between Pakistan and India. We think the trip was a good thing, and we were pleased to see the visa progress that they made, which supports progress that they had made in the past on economic issues,” US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.
The spokesperson said Pakistan-India detente was very much in line with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s New Silk Road vision that the connections in that whole neighbourhood would grow stronger so that prosperity would grow for everyone. In an acknowledgement of challenges that remain the way of durable peace, Nuland noted, “There’s more work to do. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk