United States President Donald Trump won’t be clubbing his visits to India and Pakistan when he visits New Delhi next month, Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed to reporters at a press briefing on Thursday.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Aisha Farooqi said that the US President “wants an exclusive visit to Pakistan,” a news report in Karachi-based Dawn said.
While the Pakistan daily speculated that Trump could visit India over the dates Feb 24 and 25, either of New Delhi or Washington is yet to release the itinerary. It has been reported that the Pakistani government is keen on getting a visit from the US President, with Prime Minister Imran Khan said to have pressed Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos to commit dates for visit to the south Asian country.
Earlier, country’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also announced in a statement that he had requested the American President to visit the country at the earliest.
The Pakistan foreign minister said the Khan-Trump meeting, the third between the two leaders in less than a year, was "very productive."
"I was present at the meeting between Prime Minister Imran and US President Trump. It lasted for one hour and was very productive," Qureshi said, adding that the meeting was conducted in a cordial manner.
"Prime Minister Imran raised all important issues before the US President, including a request to support Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force and improving the travel advisory the US issues for Pakistan," Qureshi said in his statement, according to Geo News.
Pakistan has been urging the US to support its bid to exit from the grey list of the Paris-based FATF as a key meeting of the international terror financing watchdog was being held in Beijing which will scrutinise Islamabad''s efforts to adopt stricter laws against terror financing and money laundering.
The FATF said Pakistan must demonstrate effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions against all UN designated terrorists like Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar, and those acting for or on their behalf.
Last year, the Pakistan PM had also requested Trump to pay a visit to the country, while he was on a visit to the US.
(with IANS inputs)
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