Off the wire
• U.S.-ASEAN relationship should benefit regional peace: FM spokesman  • China to improve support for people with extreme difficulties  • Economic activity of Albania moves along positive trajectory  • Love birds inspire Chinese creativity  • 4 killed, 2 injured in S. Philippine explosion  • Madrid, Salamanca: places to live in Spain for long life  • Four Spanish sides in Europa League action  • China issues guideline on government openness  • Ethiopia to host ministerial meeting on sanitation, water  • China commerce ministry denies massive capital outflow  
You are here: 　 Home

Pakistan, U.S. to hold strategic dialogue this month

Xinhua, February 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Pakistan and the United States will hold strategic dialogue in Washington later this month on security, anti-terrorism and economic cooperation, officials said on Wednesday.

It will be the 6th "Ministerial level Pakistan-US Strategic Dialogue" since the dialogue process began in 2010. The fifth session was held in Islamabad in January last year.

Pakistan's top Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will lead their respective sides on Feb. 29, the Foreign Ministry said.

A Foreign Ministry statement said the six segments of the dialogue - cooperation in Economy and Finance, Energy, Education, Science and Technology, Law Enforcement and Counter Terrorism, Security, Strategic Stability and Non-Proliferation and Defence - will come under discussion.

"The upcoming meeting will afford an important opportunity to take stock of the entire gamut of Pakistan's bilateral relations with the United States," the statement said.

The talks were disrupted in 2011 when the U.S. forces conducted a unilateral raid to kill the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad. The process was restored in 2014.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to the U.S. in October 2015 had provided necessary impetus and direction to the dialogue mechanism, the Foreign Ministry said. It would be third meeting since Sharif has assumed office in 2013.

Both countries will hold the dialogue weeks ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Sharif to Washington. President Barrack Obama has invited the prime minister to attend a nuclear summit, officials said. Enditem