- Sheikh for turning leadership-level goodwill into workable co-action.
- Calls financial cooperation because the spine of future Pak–US ties.
- US facet alerts curiosity, although no agency roadmap is on the desk but.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, on Friday referred to as on US Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kapur this week, in what officers described as an early spherical of talks geared toward giving some actual form to the diplomatic heat proven by each governments in current months.
The envoy congratulated Kapur on taking cost of the South and Central Asia bureau and used the assembly to push the concept Islamabad and Washington ought to now transfer past well mannered statements and begin constructing what he referred to as an economically grounded strategic cooperation.
In an X publish, Ambassador Sheikh stated: “Mentioned methods and technique of translating the resolve — expressed on the management stage — of creating Pak-US ties into an economically entrenched strategic partnership, via sustained engagement in a number of domains of mutual curiosity.”
He pressed for regular, working-level engagement — commerce, funding, power cooperation, and no matter else can anchor the connection in one thing extra strong than disaster diplomacy.
“Pleasure to satisfy Pakistani Ambassador Sheikh on the State Division at the moment,” Assistant Secretary Kapur stated in a separate message posted on his official X deal with.
“Mentioned methods to advance the US-Pakistan relationship and make our nations extra affluent and safe.”
US officers, for his or her half, signalled curiosity in holding the dialog shifting, although there isn’t a detailed roadmap but. Nonetheless, the assembly is being seen in Islamabad as a helpful step in holding Washington engaged at a time when Pakistan is attempting to reopen previous channels and stabilise ties after a number of tough years.
Kapur was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs on 22 October 2025. He’s on go away from the US Naval Postgraduate College, the place he was a professor within the Division of Nationwide Safety Affairs.
Beforehand, Kapur was a visiting fellow on the Hoover Establishment, served on the State Division’s Coverage Planning Employees, and taught at Claremont McKenna School. Kapur is the writer of Harmful Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Battle in South Asia; co-author of India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia; and co-editor of The Challenges of Nuclear Safety: US and Indian Views.
His work has additionally appeared in main educational journals, in widespread information shops, and in all kinds of edited volumes. Kapur has directed an annual United States-India Monitor 1.5 strategic dialogue, in addition to different US-India engagements, for the Division of Defence. He acquired his PhD from the College of Chicago and his BA from Amherst School.
