Pakistan Foreign Office on Thursday confirmed that US President Donald Trump’s visit to India on February would not include a stop over at Pakistan.
The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqi said that President Trump would not be stopping over at Pakistan during his India tour as he ‘wants an exclusive visit to Pakistan’.
Farooqi however declined to spell out a set time frame for the American President’s visit but said that it may take place later this year and that the two sides are working on it.
Pakistan is keen to host the US President and Prime Minister Imran Khan had extended an invitation to Mr Trump to visit Pakistan during his visit to Washington in July, 2019. Expectations of Trump’s visit to Pakistan were raised when Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi declared through a statement that ‘Trump would visit Pakistan soon’.
Farooqi declared that Pakistan was also engaged in discussions with the US on the issue of Pakistan being classified in the grey list by Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
During the media briefing Ms Farooqi also conveyed Pakistan’s insecurity regarding India’s quest for inducting of Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems in its defense infrastructure.
She cautioned that development of such capability by India could lead to an arms race in South Asia and undermine the region’s stability.
