Trump says developing much better relationship with Pakistan

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump has said his administration is starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.

In a tweet, he said, “Starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders.” “I want to thank them for their cooperation on many fronts,” Trump added.

 

Starting to develop a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders. I want to thank them for their cooperation on many fronts.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2017

His tweet comes on the heels of the release of a North American couple from the clutches of the Haqqani Network.

Caitlan Coleman, an American citizen and her husband, Joshua Boyle, a Canadian were captured from a mountain near Kabul in 2012 and held in captivity for five years.

The couple was kidnapped in October 2012 while on a backpacking trip that took them to Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then to Afghanistan.

Speaking at a Thursday afternoon news briefing, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert had termed their release a terrific step in the right direction. “We have certainly had points where that relationship has had some challenges. That relationship isn’t going to just turn around overnight. But this is a terrific step in the right direction.”

The relations between Pakistan and the United States had strained further after President Trump’s speech on Aug 21 in which he announced the new US strategy for South Asia and accused Pakistan of harboring “the very militants American forces are fighting in Afghanistan.”