Diplomatic journey by PM Khan

The Prime Minister Imran Khan held frank, candid and issues focused discussions with the US President Donald Trump in three consecutive meetings  along with his teams in the White House. Before entering into the first meeting for talks the body language and answer to the questions of media persons reflected the cordiality and good will on both sides. It is no small achieving after the downturns in relations of the two countries over past nine years and particularly the Salala incident and controversial tweet of the US President last year blaming Pakistan being ungrateful, telling lies and giving deceits to the United States in return for receiving billions of dollars in the shape security and economic assistance. The release of coalition support fund of $1.3 billion dollars was suspended last year about the release of which the US President hinted in the media interaction before the two leaders went for the first formal meeting.

The foreign minister Shah MehmoodQuershi said in a press conference after parleys of the three consecutive meetings that ball has been set rolling for the revival and reset of relations between the two countries. He also referred to his earlier interactions with the US Secretary of States Mike Pompeo and Deputy Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia Alice Wills which may have served as icebreaking exercise. He disclosed that the US President has accepted the invitation of Prime Minster Imran for a visit of Pakistan. President Trump has already offered his mediation role fro resolving the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan in his media talk. But the immediate hostile reaction of India through its media lowers the level of optimism about the US mediation.

As earlier indicated, both leaders disused the prospects of closer economic cooperation. It is pertinent to mention that the US is major trading partner of Pakistan and the later still enjoys trade surplus with the former in bilateral trade. Free access to the US markets will certainly increase Pakistan’s exports to the United State which will have a salutary impact on current account deficit. The foreign minister has once again reiterated the resolve of the present government to hectically pursuing the economic diplomacy for steering the country out of prevailing economic crisis. It merits mention that Pakistan has massive trade deficit with other trading partners including China, Indonesia and Turkey. With China alone the trade deficit stands at $12 billion and with Indonesia it is about $1.90 plus. The Prime Minister has held meeting with the US Business Executive and assured them business friendly environment in Pakistan. The direct investment of American companies will bring latest technology for various industries which will help in to expand and modernize the industrial base which is stuck in the second generation technology and has made the industrial goods less competitive in the domestic and foreign markets. However, the irrational high prices of energy inputs and low level of skill of human resource may prove a major bottleneck for investment by the American companies. An early solution of these problems has to be found out which had been created by the PPP and PML-N governments.

Removal of Pakistan from the greylist is inevitable for the inflow of foreign capital from multilateral donor agencies and floating of investment bonds in private capital markets. Pakistan was greylisted in June last year by the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF) in its Paris meeting. It was the United States that moved the resolution in the meeting for this purpose citing the reason of weak anti-money laundering and counterterrorism regimes. The present government has shown zero tolerance for money laundering by political and business elite. It has taken strong measures to choke the source of terror financing and has formed a working group to formulate a mechanism for blocking the possible flow of such finances from informal channels. The support of the United States to Pakistan in the FATF meeting in September will help it to get out of the greylist. There are bold indications that Prime Minster’s visit of the United States will bring the desired dividends on diplomatic and economic fronts.

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