Sartaj Aziz team in US for Pak strategic talks

A four-member Pakistani delegation reached Washington on Sunday to attend the sixth round of ministerial-level Pakistan-US strategic dialogue to be held on Monday.

The delegation is headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, and includes minister for planning and development and reform Ahsan Iqbal, minister of state for water and power Abid Sher Ali and interior secretary Arif Khan. The talks will take stock of entire gamut of bilateral relations between the two countries. The US delegation will be led by secretary of state John Kerry in the talks, said an official statement.

The six segments of the strategic dialogue include cooperation in economy and finance; energy; education, science and technology; law enforcement and counterterrorism; security, strategic stability and non-proliferation and defence. It will be the third annual meeting since the Sharif government has come to power. Mr Sharif’s visit to the United States in October had given necessary impetus to the dialogue mechanism.

Earlier, Mr Iqbal said that the purpose of the Pak-US strategic talks was to extend the relations between both the countries. He said that in the past, relations between both the countries were limited to security only, adding that Pakistan keeps informing the US of security threats and will also do in future. He reiterated Pakistan was trying to bring peace in the region for which it is working with the US.