Islamabad (October 02, 2018): Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will hold a meeting with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo in Washington today.
During the meeting, bilateral issues and regional security matters will come under discussion.
He will also hold a meeting with the country’s National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton at the White House.
Qureshi had arrived in Washington DC on Sunday for talks on bilateral relations with US officials following his trip to New York for the United Nation’s General Assembly session.
His first stop is expected to be the White House where he will meet Bolton for talks on untangling Pakistan’s ruffled relations with the US. He will then proceed to the US State Department for his second meeting with the secretary of state.
Pompeo and Qureshi first met in Islamabad early in September, when the US government approached the new Pakistani government to discuss key issues that have strained decades-old ties between the two countries.
In a briefing about his earlier meeting, Pompeo said that following the election of Prime Minister Imran Khan in July, the US “wanted to get out there at the beginning of his time in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries”.
It was during his Islamabad visit that Pompeo invited the Pakistani foreign minister to visit Washington for further talks.
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Earlier during in Interview with an American TV, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said that the purpose of his visit to the US was not to seek aid but build deteriorating ties between the two countries.
“I am not here to talk for dollars and cents, I am not here to seek aid,”
The foreign minister said that Pakistan wants to fix ‘a relationship that went sour – a relationship that has mutually-benefited both sides.’
“We have been allies for a long time, it is time to rebuild that powerful relationship,” Qureshi said.
Talking about Dr Shakil Afridi, the foreign minister said that the issue could be discussed with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Afridi’s future, Qureshi further said, lies not with politics but with the courts.
“We have a legal process. Afridi went through that legal process, he was given a fair chance to plead his case. He was sentenced, he was convicted and is serving a sentence,” Qureshi added. “We expect you to respect our legal process, as we respect yours.” 
Qureshi represented Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week. He is scheduled to meet Pompeo in Washington on Tuesday.
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