The US State Department has asked Congress to resume more than $300 million in blocked security assistance to Pakistan, officials said Sunday amid an upswing in relations. "This is part of a long process of restarting security assistance co-operation after implementation was slowed during the bilateral challenges of 2011 and 2012," deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told AFP. The development came as US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is making his country's highest-level official visit to the US in years.
"We have a lot to talk about and the relationship with Pakistan could not be more important," Kerry said at the start of the meeting. He called Pakistan a "democracy that is working hard to get its economy moving and deal with insurgency and also important to the regional stability."
Sharif was elected in May, and Washington has praised his efforts to reduce tensions in South Asia. Relations with US have also improved since they plunged to one of their lowest points in 2011 amid the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a US commando raid in Pakistan, as well as the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a US air strike.
US security assistance was interrupted during that period, although 857 million dollars in civilian assistance continued to flow, Harf said. She said US security assistance would build the capabilities of Pakistan's security forces, "which is critical to countering violence in the western border regions." "And US civilian assistance to Pakistan has delivered real results on the issues most important to Prime Minister Sharif and all Pakistanis: energy, education, and economic growth," she said.
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