WASHINGTON
The US State Department has said that Washington has informed Islamabad about its position on the Russia-Ukraine standoff. US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said this during a press briefing on Wednesday when asked about the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
He said the US government is surely aware of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Russia. Price said that Washington has briefed Pakistan on efforts made by Washington to pursue diplomacy over war in Ukraine. The spokesperson said that the United States will be willing to engage in diplomacy with Moscow, if it shows de-escalation on Ukraine.
Price said that his country believes that it is the responsibility of every responsible country around the world to voice concern, to voice objection to what Russian President Putin appears to have in mind for Ukraine. Talking about Pakistan-US relations, the spokesperson stressed that the two countries have a long-standing partnership and strategic cooperation in different fields. Price said that the US views the partnership with a prosperous, democratic Pakistan as critical to its interests. “We certainly hope, when it comes to those shared interests – the aversion of a costly conflict, the aversion of a destabilizing conflict, that every country around the world would make that point clearly in unambiguous language in their engagements with the Russian Federation,” he added.
