Will Look At Ways To Advance Ties: US State Department On Pakistan

A month after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's maiden visit to the United States, where he discussed bilateral economic and commercial ties with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Biden administration said that Washington will look at ways to advance ties with Islamabad in a manner that serves the mutual interests of both the countries.

During a press conference, State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday (local time) termed Pakistan as America's partner.

"Pakistan is a partner of ours, and we will look to ways to advance that partnership in a manner. But Pakistan is a partner of ours, and we will look to ways to advance that partnership in a manner that serves our interest and our mutual interests as well," he said.

In May, Bilawal was on a visit to the US at the invitation of Blinken to attend the ministerial meeting on the "Global Food Security Call to Action" to be held at the UN.

"We have had a couple of occasions now to meet with representatives of the new Pakistani Government. We - when we were in New York last month for the food security ministerial, Secretary Blinken had an opportunity to sit down with his Pakistani counterpart to meet him face-to-face in his position for the first time," he added.

Meanwhile, the United States said that it is "there for" India. Noting that New Delhi's relationship with Moscow developed over several decades when Washington was not ready for that, US State Department said.

"We have had a number of discussions with our Indian partners, and the point that we have made is that every country is going to have a different relationship with Moscow," the State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press conference.

"India's relationship with Russia was built up over the course of many decades. As countries reorient their relationship with Moscow, as we have seen many of them do, this will be a gradual process," he said.

The US has often publicly acknowledged that it understands India's historic ties with Russia and how it would be difficult for India to quickly cut its ties with Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)