Pak minister says Trump wants reset of relationship

ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump intends to rebuild Us-pakistan relations, which plunged to a fresh low after Washington suspended security aid worth nearly $2 billion, according to foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

“I met President Trump at the reception, where I had the opportunity to discuss Pakistan-us relations with him. I requested him that we have had cordial relations and need to rebuild them,” Qureshi told state-run PTV after meeting the President on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New Work.

Qureshi said he informed Trump of the historic bilateral relations and the need for a reset, APP news agency reported.

“President Trump agrees with the view and says the US intends to rebuild the relations,” he said, adding he found Trump’s attitude to be positive during the meeting.

Trump conveyed good wishes to Prime Minister Imran Khan, said Qureshi, who also met secretary of state Mike Pompeo. “A special meeting with Secretary Pompeo is scheduled for October 2,” he said.

Qureshi is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 29. He is visiting the US weeks after Pompeo visited Islamabad and asked Pakistan’s civil and military leadership to take “sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability”.

The US has been pressuring Pakistan to help bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table and to crack down on terror financing and militant groups such as Lashkar-e-taiba and Haqqani Network.

‘PLOTS TO DISRUPT PAKCHINA TIES WILL FAIL’

Any plots to sow discord in China’s ties with Pakistan will not prevail, the Chinese government’s top diplomat has said.

China welcomes the good start made in its “all-weather” partnership with Pakistan following the election of Khan, State Councillor Wang Yi told Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

But “any conspiracies attempting to incite disharmony or interfere in China-pakistan relations will not prevail,” Wang added, without elaborating, according to a statement released by China’s foreign ministry.