Moeed Yusuf, the special assistant to Pakistan’s prime minister on national security, has called for establishing US-Pakistan ties around economic security. He also said a “paradigm shift” in the bilateral relations could be achieved through co-investment and cooperation in connectivity projects. 

Yusuf was speaking at the launch of a report prepared by the Tabad Lab, an Islamabad based think thank. The paper suggested a future policy framework for Pakistan with its relationship to the US. 

The paper said Pakistan should push for economic diplomacy and make a transition from geopolitical to geo-economic cooperation, bolstering human security, partnering for Afghanistan peace, and countering global terrorism. 

According to a report in Dawn, Yusuf called the FATF greylisting an artificial barrier and said Pakistan expected the international community to remove these restrictions. He also said that the US should not keep India at the center of all conversations in the bilateral relationship. 

The policy paper also cautioned the US not to use international financial institutions and aid against Pakistan for its regional strategic interests. 

"The US must avoid exerting political pressure on such entities to achieve its own strategic goals, as this, in turn, will continue to erode Pakistan’s trust in the global multilateral system and compel it to rely more on Chinese financial support,” it reads.

“There are a lot of positives to pick up and work with and move forward,” Yusuf  was quoted as saying by Dawn. He said both nations can cooperate on regional peace, Covid-19, climate change.