US-Pak ties haven't been smooth, it's complicated, admits White House

president-elect Donald Trump's telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which he described him as a “fantastic leader”.

US-Pak ties haven't been smooth, it's complicated, admits White House

New Delhi: Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been bumpy of late because of “overlapping national security interests” and they are “complicated”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

The remarks from a senior Obama administration official comes days after president-elect Donald Trump's telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which he described him as a “fantastic leader”.

Earnest said that the relations, particularly over the last eight years, have not been consistently smooth.

And it's “complicated” because of the “overlapping national security interests”, the Times of India quoted Earnast as saying.

He also noted that President Barack Obama at one point expressed his desire to visit Islamabad but it didn't come through because of “abnormal security situation, confused development and contradictory policies in Pakistan.

He admitted that the ties were strained following the US raid in Abbotabad, Pakistan, in which Osama bin Laden was killed.

Washington is also unhappy of the fact that Islamabad didn't quite act against homegrown terror like the Haqqani network, Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed.

"One thing we do know is that it sends a powerful message to the people of a country when the President of the United States goes to visit.

“And that's true whether it's some of our closest allies, or that's also true if it's a country like Pakistan, with whom our relationship is somewhat more complicated," the TOI report quoted Earnast as saying.

 

 

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