Presenting Pakistan’s perspective on key regional and international issues, Ambassador Sheikh noted 2025 was a year of important changes in the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. The nature of improved relations between the two longtime allies is “neither optional nor temporary,” he said. “The sustainability of our relations is an important future necessity.”
Ambassador Sheikh Briefs Think Tank Experts on Pakistan-US Relations in the New Year
By Elaine Pasquini
Washington, DC: Despite freezing temperatures and snow-packed streets in the nation’s capital, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, hosted members of Washington’s premier think tanks and policy institutes at the embassy on January 29, 2026.
Presenting Pakistan’s perspective on key regional and international issues, Ambassador Sheikh noted 2025 was a year of important changes in the relationship between the United States and Pakistan. The nature of improved relations between the two longtime allies is “neither optional nor temporary,” he said. “The sustainability of our relations is an important future necessity.”
In the context of regional global peace and stability, Pakistan has always played an important role, the ambassador emphasized. “The partnership between the two countries has been productive not only in achieving mutual interests but also with regard to global peace.”
Ambassador Sheikh went on to credit the recent positive trends in bilateral relations to the senior leadership in both Islamabad and Washington. Alongside its geopolitical importance, he pointed out, Pakistan possesses strong and long-term potential for establishing profitable economic linkages, adding that the resolve to enhance cooperation in key sectors such as minerals, energy and IT has given a “new dimension to bilateral relations.”
In addition, Pakistan’s youth – more than 65 percent of the population is under age 30 – holds key potential to help address shortages of human resources in the United States and around the world, he stated. And, in terms of low cost and better quality, Pakistan enjoys a competitive edge over other countries in the region from which American investors and their manufacturing sector can reap profitable benefits.
The ambassador also spoke on the impact of terrorism originating from neighboring Afghanistan which has increased substantially since the withdrawal of US troops in August 2021. Pakistan’s constructive and positive response has been strong, he said, while a diplomatic solution has always been his country’s foremost priority.
“The Pakistani leadership and people are determined to completely eradicate the scourge of terrorism,” the ambassador stressed. “Protecting the life and property of its citizens is the top priority of the government of Pakistan; no effort or sacrifice will be spared in this regard.”
The military crisis of May last year between India and Pakistan once again proved to the world that Pakistan “cannot be intimidated in any way when it comes to its integrity and national dignity,” the ambassador said. “Indian aggression in May 2025 has exposed the region’s peace to grave dangers.”
Of particular importance to Pakistan currently is India’s unilateral and unacceptable suspension last year of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. The international community should take notice of the illegal and dangerous practice of using water as a weapon, he warned.
And further, with respect to Kashmir, a durable solution in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people and United Nations Security Council resolutions is crucial not only for regional and global peace but also for the region’s development and stability, Ambassador Sheikh stated.
Members of the think tanks attending included Marvin G Weinbaum, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute specializing in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran; and Daniel F Runde, non-resident senior advisor in the office of the president at the Center for Strategic and International Studes.
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
