United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and felicitated him on assuming the office.

Bilawal confirmed receiving the call from his US counterpart in a Twitter post and said that he thanked him for the felicitations.

“Received a call from (Secretary Blinken). (I am) grateful for warm felicitations on my assumption of office,” Bilawal said on Twitter.

He said that during their telephonic conversation, the two exchanged views on strengthening mutually beneficial, broad-based relationships as well as the promotion of peace, development, and security.

"Both the sides agreed that engagement with mutual respect was the way forward," the foreign minister added.

Bilawal takes oath as federal minister in PM Shehbaz's cabinet

The communication came days after a State Department spokesperson said that the United States will continue cooperating with Pakistan on counterterrorism and border security.

While reiterating Washington’s condemnation of last month’s terrorist attack in Karachi University, spokesman Ned Price had said that the US values the bilateral relationship with Pakistan and wants to continue to work together in areas of interest, including counterterrorism, and border security.

He was responding to a question about whether the US was reviewing the former Trump administration-imposed suspension of security aid to Islamabad following the deadly terrorist attack in Karachi, as such attacks emanating from Afghanistan continue to rise across Pakistan.

“We strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Karachi University in Pakistan. We reiterate that condemnation today. A terrorist attack anywhere is an affront to humanity everywhere,” the spokesperson said.

“But for a terrorist attack to take place at a university or at a religious site or at some of the locations we’ve seen recently, that is a true affront to mankind,” he added.