Excerpts from the remarks of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Horst

“On behalf of the State Department, I just want to note that the US Pakistan relationship is in the best place it’s been in years, in part, in large part to what Ambassador Masood Khan has done to represent Pakistan, to build bridges between Islamabad and Washington. We have achieved a stability and a broadening of our relationship that we haven’t seen in many many years. We have had new dialogues opened. We have looked for new areas of trade. We have looked for ways we can cooperate on things like health and energy and climate– things that we haven’t talked about for a long time. And all of that is because you, Masood, have been extraordinary representative of the Pakistani people and the Pakistani government. You have been a person of integrity, You have brought creativity and hospitality. You have used your dining room table for delicious lunches for everybody in the government of the United States as well as Capitol Hill. You have been incredibly effective. And we have this relationship now because of the efforts that you have made.
And like any longstanding relationship, there’s always a little bit of friction at times, but because of you, we know how we can talk through this and we have a framework to talk through friction. So you can know that you leave your you depart Washington, leaving the relationship between Pakistan and the United States better than when you came and as strong as it’s been in a long time and I think we are all going to benefit from the two years that you put in here. I want to thank you personally and from the State Department.”