WASHINGTON: The United States has said that it continues to monitor the situation in Pakistan closely, and as the U.S. has said before, “we don’t have a position on one candidate or one political party versus another. What our interest is is a safe and secure, prosperous Pakistan. That is in the interest of the U.S.-Pakistan relations, and we call for the respect of democratic principles and the rule of law around the world.”
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Speaking at press briefing, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel’s attention was drawn towards Pakistan government’s measures of shutting down social media platforms like Twitter, to which he said “this is something that the Secretary has emphasized pretty clearly before. He has been clear that access to information and diverse ideas make for a more prosperous and democratic society, and access to internet connection, for example, connects the public to information they need to advocate for themselves, to communicate with one another, to make informed decisions, to hold government officials accountable, and to exercise their freedom of expression.”
When asked if US Government had any concern about safety of nuclear assets in Pakistan in the wake of growing extremism and ‘rifts in Pakistani military’, the spokesperson said “There’s no – I’m just not going to speculate on that. That is a – something internal to Pakistan.”
Responding to another question, Vedant Patel said ” we do not have a favored candidate or a favored political party, not just in Pakistan but as it relates to any government system around the world. And I will reiterate what my colleagues Admiral Kirby and Karine said, that the – a prosperous and strong, democratic Pakistan is critical to U.S. interests. That remains unchanged.
But on some of these areas, such as press freedom, human rights, things of that nature, we have consistently raised these issues with our counterparts not just in Pakistan but in other countries where we have a perspective to offer on that. But to give you some examples, what the United States is interested in is we look – are looking to continue to strengthen economic ties between our two countries by expanding private sector trade and investment, and there’s also an important security collaboration and areas of collaboration on renewable energy, addressing the climate crisis, increasing agricultural trade, and a number of areas. That’s what we mean by a strong, prosperous, and democratic Pakistan that is critical to U.S. interests.”
About Biden administration’s policy towards Pakistan, the State Department spokesperson said ” Pakistan continues to be an important partner in the region – an important trade partner, an important security partner – and even in that time period we continued to engage with our Pakistani counterparts on a number of issues.”
