WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, has called for greater American investment in Pakistan and more trade between the two nations to further strengthen their ties.
He made the remarks while speaking at the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia. He urged the US business community to increase their investment portfolios, especially in agriculture, technology, renewable energy and extractive industries.
“Pakistan is a big market for American manufacturers,” the ambassador told a gathering of scholars, policy-makers, legislators, entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals. “If you manufacture state-of-the-art products, you have 240 million consumers in Pakistan,” he said.
In his speech, he touched upon Pakistan-US ties, the war on terror, re-calibration of their bilateral ties in the post-withdrawal period, issues of regional stability and Pakistan-India relations. In this regard, he focused on the existing investment and trade opportunities between Pakistan and the United States that provided new sinews to the relationship.
The Ambassador presented a holistic view of the bilateral relationship spanning over seven decades, adding the two countries are now investing in people-centric diplomacy.
He said Pakistan has big human capital stating that Pakistan is digitally connected with the rest of the world.
Masood Khan on counter-terrorism cooperation, said, Pakistan and the United States cooperated and together they broke the back of terrorist organizations. He said that Al-Qaeda is not where it was in 2001-02. He said there is awareness worldwide about the asymmetric threat of terrorism to international civilization and how to tackle it.
He said, that in late 2021 and early 2022, the leadership of Pakistan and the United States reset their ties deciding that they will continue their cooperation in countering terrorism, promoting regional stability and maintaining a dialogue.
The ambassador added that both countries started working to strengthen their economic partnership adding that they have been succeeding in the areas of trade and investment, green technologies, renewable energy, combating climate change, education, health care, and others.”
The envoy added when he came to the US in 2022, the number of Pakistani students in American universities was 7,000, now it is more than 10,000.
He went on to say that Pakistan’s relations with China, are not at the expense of its ties with the United States.
On Pakistan-India ties, the Ambassador said that there hasn’t been any structured dialogue between the two countries since 2014. He stressed the need for a result-oriented structured dialogue.
Masood Khan urged the government of the US to follow a balanced approach on the matter.
The Ambassador also stressed the need for full restoration of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
The Ambassador touching upon the Middle East situation, urged the United States to demonstrate its leadership and assert itself.
