PM Abbasi to visit US in third week of September: sources

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will visit United States in the third week of September, sources said Monday.

Sources said PM Abbasi will visit the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in the third week of next month.

Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif will accompany the Premier during his visit.

PM Abbasi is expected to meet the US officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s session.

This will be maiden trip of Abbasi to the US as Prime Minister after Nawaz Sharif was ousted.

The visit will come amid tense relations between the two countries following the announcement by President Donald Trump of his new policy for South Asia which was critical of Pakistan.

Pakistan on Sunday postponed a visit by a U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State, officials said, as small protests broke out against President Donald Trump’s accusations that Islamabad was prolonging the war in Afghanistan.

The visit of Alice Wells, acting assistant Secretary of State for South and Asian Affairs, scheduled for Monday, would have been the first high-profile visit by a U.S. official since Trump’s Afghan policy speech on Aug. 21.

“At the request of the Government of Pakistan, Acting Assistant Secretary Wells’ trip has been postponed until a mutually convenient time,” a U.S. Embassy spokesperson told Reuters in Islamabad on Sunday.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry released a statement with similar wording.

Trump accused Pakistan of harbouring “agents of chaos” and providing safe havens to militant groups.

Pakistani officials responded by saying the U.S. should not “scapegoat” Pakistan and accused the American military of failing to eliminate militant sanctuaries inside Afghanistan.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had postponed his US visit following accusations by Donald Trump.