No breakthrough in talks with US official

WELLS WAS IN TOWN TO DISCUSS PROGRESS ON REGIONAL SECURITY

Atop US State Department official visited Pakistan to review the progress made by Islamabad on regional security and stability and met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials, but the meeting ended without any breakthrough, according to a media report here yesterday.

The US Department of State’s Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Ambassador Alice Wells visited Islamabad for meetings with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and other senior officials, a statement, issued late yesterday, by the US Embassy here said.

“In her meetings, she discussed the status of the United States’ South Asia strategy and efforts to make progress on regional security and stability,” it added.

War against terrorism

Wells was on a daylong trip to Islamabad to continue her talks in the wake of President Donald Trump’s new South Asia and Afghanistan policy, in particular Pakistan’s commitment in the war against terrorism.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson, Mohammad Faisal only shared a picture of Janjua receiving Wells on twitter, but did not share any details of the meeting.

Another round of PakistanUS talks aimed at getting Islamabad to fulfil Washington’s expectations, envisioned in its South Asia and Afghanistan policy, ended without any breakthrough, Dawn reported.

Quoting a diplomatic source, it said that the agendas of both sides at the meeting at the FO were same as before, with the addition of two new issues — the restrictions on Pakistani diplomats that would come into effect from May 1 and a traffic accident involving US defence attaché Col Joseph Hall, who earlier this month struck a motorcyclist who later died.