Sattar may visit U.S. soon

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MAY 6. The United States Secretary of State, Mr. Colin Powell, is believed

to have extended an invitation to the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, to visit Washington for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest between the two countries.

The Pakistani Urdu daily, Jang, in a report, today, has claimed that the dates for the proposed visit are being finalised through diplomatic channels. It said the visit would materialise in the next three months.

The visit would be significant as it would provide an opportunity for Pakistan to understand the policies of the Bush Administration towards South Asia.

There has been a certain degree of unease, though unstated, in the military establishment about its ties with the U.S. particularly after the much-talked one-talk visit of the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, to Washington.

The Pakistan Finance Minister, Mr. Shaukat Aziz, was recently in Washington in connection with the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. If the media reports are any indication, he has come back with `happy memories'.

The assessment of the Finance Minister, as reported in the Pakistani press, is that the Bush Administration would continue to engage Pakistan as before and it has no intention to abandon its old ally at the altar of the emerging Indo-US relationship.

Jang in its report has said that the visit of Mr. Sattar would be significant in the context of the debate within the U.S. on the sanctions imposed against Pakistan in the wake of the nuclear tests carried out in May 1998.

In the last few weeks, the military government in Islamabad has been impressing upon the Bush Administration on the need for immediate lifting of sanctions to help it carry forward the agenda of economic reforms.

The Finance Minister of Pakistan has been quoted as saying that he found all those who met in U.S. `encouraging' on the issue of sanctions.

The report, while not ruling out the possibility of a meeting between Mr. Sattar and the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, said that Kashmir would be a priority in the discussions between the Pakistan Foreign Minister and his interlocutors in Washington.

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Section  : International
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