Ready to work with new US administration says Pak foreign minister

Islamabad, Jan 25: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday that his country was ready to work with the new US administration and asserted that the world has changed a lot in the last four years and any engagement and relations should be developed on the basis of new ground realities.

Under the Trump administration, the relations between Pakistan and the US were chaotic as well as complex.

"In (these) four years the world has changed, the region has changed and Pakistan has changed and you have to engage with this new Pakistan," Qureshi said while addressing a press conference in Multan.

He said that the Pakistan government was ready to work with the new US government and hoped that the Biden administration would be guided by a "new approach and new policy guidelines."

"I understand that there is a lot of similarity between the current thinking in the United States and our policies," he said.

Qureshi said that he in a letter addressed to the incoming Secretary of State Anthony Blinken tried to update him about the positive trajectory of Pakistan's policies with the idea of more talks on the issue of interests with him.

"We have made a very big shift, from a geo-strategic position to a geo-economic position," he said, highlighting the focus of the current government to fix the ailing economy of the country.

The statement came as Pakistan looked forward to build on the improvement in ties with Washington in the wake of peace agreement with the Taliban, which Islamabad claims it facilitated.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has already expressed his desire to work with the new American administration to deepen bilateral ties.

"Look forward to working with @POTUS in building a stronger Pak-US partnership through trade and economic engagement, countering climate change, improving public health, combating corruption and promoting peace in the region and beyond, Khan tweeted while congratulating the new US President.

Qureshi, whose government is accused of vote rigging by the opposition parties, said that India has also changed, alleging that "it is no more a democratic country."

The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place.

India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by a Pakistan-based terror group, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.