 "Confident of Pakistan's commitment, ability to secure nuclear assets: US")
The US is confident of Pakistan's commitment and ability to secure its nuclear assets, the State Department has said, days after President Joe Biden dubbed the country "one of the most dangerous in the world" as it has "nuclear weapons without any cohesion".
The US has always viewed a secure and prosperous Pakistan as critical to US interests, State Department's Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday.
Biden's remarks, made at a Democratic Party congressional campaign committee reception here on Thursday, were rejected by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as "factually incorrect and misleading" as Islamabad summoned the US Ambassador to lodge an official demarche.
"(The US is) confident of Pakistan's commitment and its ability to secure its nuclear assets," Patel told reporters at a news conference.
"The US has always viewed a secure and prosperous Pakistan as critical to US interests. More broadly, the US values our long-standing cooperation with Pakistan. We enjoy a strong partnership," he said.
The State Department, however, refrained from commenting on Biden's remarks.
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"The foreign minister (of Pakistan) was in town and had a bilateral meeting with the Secretary not too long ago. Counselor Derek Chollet had the opportunity to visit Karachi and Islamabad not too long ago, I think, on the tail end of the summer, as did USAID Administrator Sam Power," Patel said.
"This is a relationship we view as important, and it's something that we're going to continue to remain deeply engaged in. And as it relates to the ambassador, we regularly meet with officials at the foreign ministry, but I don't have anything specific to read out," he said.
A formerly warm relationship between the US and Pakistan frayed due to Pakistan's support for the Taliban in Afghanistan and the presence of large numbers of Jihadi militants on its soil. Americans have been particularly upset with Pakistan since 2011, after al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was found and killed there.
After a hiatus of a few years, Pakistan and the US have started to re-engage.