Friday, January 24, 2025
ISLAMABAD (News / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jan, 2025 ) :The Pakistani Foreign Office on Thursday expressed hope that Pakistan’s relations with the United States will deepen further under the new Trump administration. However, the spokesperson also stressed that non-interference in internal affairs is an important foundation of bilateral relations.
“Pakistan-US relations are very important to us,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said during the weekly briefing.
It is based on a decades-old, strong legacy, on which we can build, and we are ready to work with the new administration to take these relations forward.”
The Trump administration’s approach to South Asia is quite different, in which US policies towards India and China will receive priority, so many experts are warning that in this situation, relations between Islamabad and Washington are likely to suffer from frost.
Pakistan has never been a tactical ally of the US, White House
It should be noted that Pakistan’s cooperation with China under projects like CPEC and its strained relations with India are often criticized in Washington.
What else did the Pakistani Foreign Office have to say on this?
Pointing to the multifaceted nature of the relationship, Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that these relations, “cover multiple areas and we look forward to continuing the positive momentum of our relationship and engaging with the new administration.”
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Emphasizing Pakistan’s continued commitment to strong US relations, Shafqat Khan stressed the need to uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs. “This is part of the principles on which inter-state relations are built,” he said.
The new US administration and Pakistan
It should be noted that Pakistan’s internal politics and concerns in this regard also complicate matters.
Last year, questions were raised in the US Congress on issues such as democracy and human rights in Pakistan.
In this regard, dozens of members of Congress had demanded that the then President Joe Biden advocate for the release of political prisoners, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Now the US and the UK have also raised questions about military courts in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, further increasing Islamabad's concerns, the Trump administration's special envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, has also openly criticized the treatment of Imran Khan and has urged his release.
On the other hand, Imran Khan's party, PTI, has also started lobbying members of the US government and in this context, there are concerns and apprehensions in Islamabad about the possible critical stance of the US administration.
The emphasis on non-interference by the Foreign Office spokesperson in Islamabad is an attempt to counter these concerns and strengthen its position on sovereignty.
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Despite all these concerns, Pakistan considers its relations with the US important. That is why, as an initial attempt to move the talks forward with the Trump administration, the Shehbaz Sharif government quietly sent Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to the US as a special envoy to meet the Trump administration team and members of Congress.
To a question about Mohsin Naqvi’s visit to the US and his participation in President Trump’s inauguration ceremony, the Foreign Office spokesperson said, “Our ambassador represented the Government of Pakistan, as was the case in past swearing-in ceremonies.”
Washington’s promise to resettle Afghans
The Foreign Office also revealed for the first time on Thursday that,
“The US had agreed to resettle all Afghans currently in Pakistan by September 2025.”
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US sanctions on Pakistani institutions, Islamabad’s response
Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said that Washington has not yet officially spoken to Islamabad about the new administration’s move to suspend the Afghan refugee resettlement plan.
According to the Pakistani government, about 25,000 Afghans, who worked for the US military and its contractors, are currently in Pakistan.
These Afghans fled the Taliban government and arrived in Pakistan as a result of the chaotic withdrawal of US-led foreign forces in August 2021.
Pakistan provided them temporary residency at Washington’s request, as Washington had promised to transfer all these Afghans to the US. However, despite this US commitment, thousands of Afghans are still in Islamabad.
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Responding to journalists’ questions on these issues, Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali said, “We have a systematic mechanism with the US, under which the US administration is committed to taking all such Afghans living in Pakistan to the US by September 2025.”
The spokesperson said that Pakistan is still committed to the promise made by the US.
“The arrangements are in place. We have not been given any further information at the official level yet,” he said.
The spokesperson also said, without giving a number, that there are other countries besides the US that have promised to resettle Afghans in their respective countries.
“We feel that sometimes it seems very slow to us,” Shafqat Ali Khan said.
We would like it to speed up and the process to move forward quickly. We are also in touch with other friendly governments that want to take Afghans for resettlement in their countries.”
It should be noted that the Trump administration has completely banned all immigration activities for the next few months, due to which the flights of many Afghans who were supposed to leave for the US have also stopped.
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