Pakistan government main interlocutor: US on Gen Bajwa’s visit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 12

A day after hosting Pakistan army chief Gen Javed Qamar Bajwa, the US insisted that the democratically elected civilian government of Pakistan was its primary interlocutor.

The observation came in the wake of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stating that the US had in the past preferred a military dictator to the West and media reports in Pakistan questioning the timing of the general’s visit to Washington because his second three-year term as chief of army staff was going to end in a few weeks.

Asked about Gen Bajwa’s unusual meeting with a top US State Department official though Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken a fortnight ago, a US official said there were “a number of shared interests with our Pakistani partners”.

“We value our cooperation with Pakistan. Of course, the stability and the future of Afghanistan and the security challenges the region faces are on the agenda when we have engagements with our Pakistani counterparts,” added US State Department spokesperson Ned Price.

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