The United States on Wednesday congratulated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his democratic success as the new Pakistani leader assumed premiership of the country for the unprecedented third term. The State Department also said Washington looks forward to working with the new government.
"We congratulate Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his party's success in the May 11th elections and look forward to working with him and the newly democratically elected government of Pakistan," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. The United States, she said, welcomes the historic, largely peaceful, and transparent transfer of civilian power.
She called the occasion a significant milestone in Pakistan's democratic progress. Responding to a question in the context of the new prime minister's call for end to controversial US drone strikes against suspected militants' targets in the tribal areas, the spokesperson replied:
We have a very strong, ongoing dialogue with Pakistan regarding all aspects of the relationship and our shared interest including security and counterterrorism co-operation and we work together to address each others concerns. As we move forward, with our counterterrorism operations, it is critically important that we continue to work closely with our partners throughout the world, providing them the support they need, helping build their capacity to carry out counterterrorism operations in their own countries. And that is what we expect the conversation will be and what it will continue to be with Pakistanis.
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