ISLAMABAD - US Chargé d’ Affaires Angela Aggeler yesterday visited Gwadar, becoming the first US official to visit Gwadar in 15 years. This was her second trip to Balochistan, said a US embassy statement.

Aggeler highlighted “US-Pakistan cooperation on maritime security, increased commercial and economic ties between the United States and Balochistan, and promoting prosperity in Balochistan,” said the statement.

Angela Aggeler, said President Joe Biden is very much familiar with Pakistan so the relations between two countries will be ever stronger in the future. Recently, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that his country was ready to work with the new US administration. He said the world had changed a lot in the last four years and any engagement and relations should be developed on the basis of new ground realities. Under the Donald Trump administration, the relations between Pakistan and the US were chaotic as well as complex. “In (these) four years the world has changed, the region has changed and Pakistan has changed and you have to engage with this new Pakistan,” FM Qureshi said.

He said that the Pakistan government was ready to work with the new US government and hoped that Joe Biden administration would be guided by a “new approach and new policy guidelines.”

“I understand that there is a lot of similarity between the current thinking in the United States and our policies,” he added.

Last month, Pakistan and the US had expressed the desire to deepen ties through consistent engagements in areas of education and culture.

The agreement came during a called on meeting held between the US Charge d’ Affairs in Pakistan Angela Aggeler and Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood.

Shafqat Mahmood said relationships of both the countries in the education sector was very close and US scholarship programmes in various formats have helped Pakistan in building capacity.

He particularly mentioned that the Fulbright programme was enormously beneficial in faculty development which has been very helpful in improving standards of education.