Sharif to visit Washington this month

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit Washington this month at the invitation of US President Barack Obama, state media reported on Sunday.

During his visit, the prime minister will meet Obama, his cabinet members and foreign policy makers, Xinhua reported citing Radio Pakistan.

The exact dates of the visit were being discussed by the two sides, officials said.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice had formally extended the invitation during her visit to Pakistan in August.

Sharif led the Pakistani delegation at the UN General Assembly last month.

According to Xinhua, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani has said that relations between Pakistan and the US were now much stable compared to the past.

“These relations would grow further by the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the US,” he told a convention of the Pakistani-American community in Washington.

Jilani said the US was helping Pakistan in the war on terror by providing necessary precision strike technology as well as in the rehabilitation of displaced people from the tribal regions.

(IANS)