Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Alice Wells will arrive here on a daylong visit today (Tuesday) to hold talks with senior Pakistani authorities on issues of mutual importance, regional stability and Afghan peace efforts.
According to Spokesperson Foreign Office Dr Mohammad Faisal, Ambassador Wells during her daylong visit will hold meeting with senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He further said that Ambassador Wells will also call on Finance Minister Asad Umar to discus issues of mutual importance.
"The aim would be to follow up on discussions between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with a view to further strengthen bilateral relations," he added.
The visit by the top US diplomat comes in the wake of a latest development where Pakistan released Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar - a co-founder of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
"Mullah Baradar's release was a significant step towards the confidence building measures among all the stakeholders and the decision was taken with a view to facilitate the latest development in Afghan peace process," said a senior government official who declined to be named.
He said that Pakistan had taken a principled stance that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and the only viable option is the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process.
"After spending more than one trillion dollars on the Afghan war, the Americans have now realised that peace process is the only viable solution to the Afghan conflict. To this end, Pakistan is ready to work with all the stakeholders for long-lasting peace and stability in the war-torn Afghanistan," the official asserted.
However, he made it clear that it is a shared responsibility of all the stakeholders to continue efforts for bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table.
During his visit to Washington on October 2, 2018, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Secretary Mike Pompeo held in-depth discussions with regard to the new government's re-engagement with Trump administration as well as its South Asia and Afghan strategy.
The foreign minister reiterated Pakistan's long-held position that there was no military solution to the situation in Kabul, stressing the need of negotiated settlement of the conflict.
The foreign minister stated that Pakistan would continue to support the efforts for an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process, adding that Pakistan regards peace and stability in Afghanistan as vital for its own long-term stability and progress.
Referring to Islamabad's continued efforts to positively engage the national unity government in Afghanistan, Qureshi underlined that the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) offered the most effective mechanism to promote the mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two neighbouring states.
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