US Welcomes Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Desire for Peace with India, Afghanistan

Washington: The US has welcomed newly-elected Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement emphasizing the importance of peace with India and Afghanistan, a key official said here.

"We welcome the words of Prime Minister Imran Khan in which he discussed the importance of peace on both sides of Pakistan's borders," Alice Wells, who heads the Bureau for South and Central Asian affairs at the US State Department, said on Monday at a press briefing.

Wells is expected to accompany US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo when he visits Islamabad in the first week of September for talks with the new Pakistani leadership following which he will make stopovers in New Delhi and Kabul, reports Dawn news. Wells said that America's South Asia strategy was "obviously pointed to the role India can and should play" in supporting the stabilization of Afghanistan.

"We want to see Afghanistan stitched back into the region," said the US diplomat while clarifying that this integration does not have to come at the expense of any other country in the region.

Without mentioning the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the US official expressed concerns over projects in countries where governments involved had not been able to sustain the repayment schedules, which "resulted in the loss of sovereignty over key infrastructures" that they have had to turn over to their lenders.

Wells said that if China stopped pursuing the policy of mortgaging the future of such countries to "unrealistic and unsustainable loan terms, Washington and Beijing could work together on many issues. (IANS)