Islamabad:Pakistan’s newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Islamabad , saying he was “optimistic” he could reset the relationship with Washington after the US suspended aid over the country’s alleged failure to combat militants.
“You know I’m a born optimist,” said Khan, a former cricket star who was sworn in last month. “A sportsman always is an optimist. He steps on the field and he thinks he’s going to win.”
Pompeo spent just four hours in Pakistan, his first visit to the country. At the airport before leaving for India, he said he was “hopeful” that a foundation had been laid to move forward.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had,” he said. “It’s time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitment… We’ve had lots of times where we’ve talked and made agreements, but we haven’t been able to actually execute those.”
Pompeo held meetings with Khan, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the powerful Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa.
“We talked about their new government, the opportunity to reset the relationship between our two countries across a broad spectrum, economic, business, commercial,” Pompeo said.
He said they also discussed “the work that we all know that we need to do to try to develop a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan that benefits certainly Afghanistan, but also the United States and Pakistan.”
“I’m hopeful that the foundation that we laid today will set the conditions for continued success as we start to move forward,” he said on the tarmac before leaving.
The United States last weekend cancelled a $300 million Coalition Support Fund payment to Pakistan after long complaining that it was not doing enough to combat the Taliban and other militants who attack Afghan and US forces across the porous border.
Pakistan has rejected those allegations, saying it has played a key role in the U.S.-led campaign against extremists that began after the 9/11 attacks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)