Pompeo hopeful of common ground with new government in Islamabad

Islamabad : US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday said he was hopeful of finding a common ground for working with the new government in Pakistan and improving bilateral relations.

Pompeo, who reaches Islamabad later today, told the media that he was visiting Pakistan to reset the bilateral relations. He said that the Imran Khan-led new Pakistani government has expressed good-faith intention to improve relations with the US.

"First stop Pakistan; a new leader there. I wanted to get out there at the beginning of his (Imran Khan's) time, in an effort to reset the relationship between the two countries," Dawn reported Pompeo as saying.

"There are lots of challenges between our two nations for sure, but we're hopeful that with the new leadership we can find common ground and begin to work on some of our shared problems together," he added.

Pompeo said the very reason for this trip was to try and articulate what the US expectation was, what Pakistan could do and the things that they expect the US to do.

His trip comes right after the announcement that the US was cutting $300 million in military aid to Pakistan.