US ambassador Alice Wells to arrive in Pakistan today

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells. Photo: File

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells will arrive in Islamabad today for a four-day visit.

The visit by Wells is part of her 10-day visit to the region during which she travelled to Sri Lanka and India before her arrival in Pakistan.

In Islamabad, she will meet with senior Pakistani government officials and members of civil society to discuss issues of bilateral and regional concern, including Afghanistan and the Middle East tensions.

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Wells visit to Pakistan comes on the heels of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's visit to United States where he met with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande in New York and then US lawmakers including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Robert O’ Brien, and Under Secretary of Defence John Rood in Washington.

Before arriving in Islamabad, Wells was in Sri Lanka from January 13-14 during which she interacted with high-ranking officials and discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including shared interests in a free and open Indo-Pacific region that fosters prosperity, democracy, justice, and human rights.

The US ambassador then travelled to India, from January 15-18, to attend the "Raisina Dialogue". Wells during her visit to India met with senior government officials to "advance the US-India strategic global partnership" following the success of the 2019 US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.

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Wells' last visit to Islamabad in August 2019 had come a day after the Indian government had rushed through a presidential decree to abolish Article 370 of the Constitution that granted special status to Indian occupied Kashmir.