KARACHI: US Ambassador Donald Blome said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an autonomous agency that works within its policy framework, but his country wants Pakistan to succeed in reviving its programme with the lender, The News said.
The Pakistan Council on Foreign Relations held an interactive session on “US-Pakistan Relations: Present and Future” on Friday.
Ambassador Blome’s comments come a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made another request to the IMF to release the $1.1bn tranche, outstanding since November last year, as the $6.5bn credit programme nears its June expiration.
Moreover, The prime minister told IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Paris on Thursday that the government has met all Fund conditions.
Ambassador Blome stated they wanted Pakistan to succeed in the IMF’s financial assistance programme. He said they wanted Pakistan to prosper and no country to be diplomatically isolated.
The top American ambassador in Pakistan stated that the US traded with China.
He claimed the US had given Pakistan its finest aid to recover from last year’s floods. He said they want a climate-resilient Pakistan and that Pakistanis deserve better.
Blome said America wanted Pakistan’s economic situation resolved.
He noted that the US had supplied 80 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic, boosting trade between the two nations. He anticipated bilateral relations would grow.
The US envoy said increasing ties with Pakistan would provide it greater prospects for growth. “We want an investment-friendly Pakistan,” he declared.
He claimed the US wanted better relations with Pakistan. We want to talk on the future, not the past, he stressed.
