WASHINGTON: The US State Department has confirmed that Pakistan’s Army Chief General Bajwa did have a meeting with Deputy Secretary Wendy during his recent visit to Washington last week.
Responding to a question during a press briefing here on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Deputy Secretary Sherman “did have the opportunity” to meet Gen Bajwa in Washington last week.
“We value our long-standing cooperation with Pakistan. There are a number of areas where our interests are aligned,” he said, adding that Afghanistan and the security challenges that confront the region “are always there when we have high-level meetings with our Pakistani counterparts”.
When asked about the areas of interest that might have been discussed during the Bajwa-Shermen meeting, Ned Price said “we don’t have any meetings to read out. The meeting I referred to was between Deputy Secretary Sherman and the chief of the army staff.”
When asked about media reports questioning the timing of General Bajwa’s visit to Washington, D.C. because his second three-year term as chief of army staff was going to be ended in the next few weeks and many believed that he discussed the chaotic political situation of Pakistan with the American administration and the possible appointment of the new army chief, the spokesperson said “I am just not going to characterize the meeting beyond what I said earlier. We have a number of shared interests with our Pakistani partners. There are security interests, there are economic interests, and there are people-to-people ties and connections as well, but I’m just not going to speak to it. Of course, Pakistan has a civilian government that is democratically elected, and that is our primary interlocutor.”
