WASHINGTON: US Senator Chris Van Hollen has said that the United States played a "very instrumental" role in arranging the latest economic relief to Pakistan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and would continue to support Islamabad efforts to stabilise its economy.
At the annual meeting of the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) chapter of the Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA), Senator Van Hollen, who was born in Karachi, also underlined the need for an enduring relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
The United States has been very instrumental in making sure that the IMF came forward with its emergency economic relief, said the US senator while talking to Pakistani journalists at the annual APPNA dinner.
"Obviously, there are continuing challenges, but the United States recognizes that a good relationship between the United States and Pakistan is important to Pakistan and the United States, to regional stability and to security around the world," he added.
In July this year, the IMF approved a 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of about $3 billion 111 per cent of the country quota to support the government economic stabilisation programme and, as the senator said, Washington played a key role in arranging this deal.
The Biden administration, he said, was supporting Pakistan’s efforts to stabilise its economy because wants to have very strong bilateral relations with Pakistan. And this is why in the aftermath of the terrible flooding, you saw a substantial US response
He said that as a US senator, he was watching things closely and felt that very important most of all to the people of Pakistan that there be free and fair elections.
