ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat in Washington on Thursday urged the United States to restore military assistance to his country as a senior US official encouraged the government in Islamabad to work with the International Monitory Fund (IMF) by implementing necessary economic reforms.

Pakistan’s military assistance was suspended by the Trump administration nearly five years ago after the former US president accused the South Asian country of “lies and deceit” in one of his Twitter posts, adding that his country had paid over $33 billion without getting enough cooperation from Pakistan against the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

A US State Department spokesperson later announced the US was not entirely ending its military assistance but adopting an “issue-based approach” and would only release money when necessary.

Pakistan’s envoy to Washington, Masood Khan, took up the issue while addressing a seminar on the future of US-Pakistan relations at the Wilson Center think tank. He said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari was scheduled to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference in Goa next month, adding that his country equally valued US encouragement to India and Pakistan to constructively engage with each other.

“Beyond that the United States could act as the catalyst to help resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute which has kept the region on the brink of war,” he told the gathering. “The United States could also revive its role for strategic stability in South Asia because we believe the policy of imbalance and disequilibrium is fraught with serious perils. In that context, it is important that the United States restores, for Pakistan, foreign military financing and foreign military sales which was suspended by the previous administration.”

US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Elizabeth Horst also told the participants of the seminar that Islamabad should move ahead on stalled reforms sought by the IMF while promising technical assistance to Pakistan.

“The reform(s) that Pakistan and the IMF agreed to are not easy,” she said, “but it’s crucial that Pakistan take these actions to bring the country back to sound financial footing, avoid falling into further debt and grow Pakistan’s economy.”

“The United States is going to continue to support Pakistan through technical engagements and assistance, particularly when it comes to encouraging Pakistan to enact policies that promote an open and fair and transparent business climate,” she added.

Pakistan signed a $6.5 billion bailout package with the IMF in 2019 but less than half of it has been released as the country could not manage to meet some tough reform conditions.

Pakistan earlier this month announced a boost of $1.3 billion from two close partners, China and the United Arab Emirates, while continuing its engagement with the international lending agency.

With additional input from AFP