UNITED NATIONS: US Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday that his country was not involved in a “zero-sum game” with Pakistan but in a long-term, multi-purpose relationship.

After brief remarks to the media, Mr Biden and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had two sets of meeting. In the first, half-an-hour meeting, they were helped by their senior aides. Then they also had a one-to-one meeting as the aides came out.

Talking to reporters, Mr Biden said the United States also appreciated Pakistan’s contribution to the UN peace-keeping forces.

Mr Biden chaired a peace-keeping summit meeting at the UN on Thursday, which Mr Sharif also attended.

“We made real progress and Pakistan showed leadership, which it always has on peace-keeping,” Mr Biden said.

He noted that the US and Pakistan were close allies who shared “enormous mutual interest”.

The two countries were “striving together to combat terrorism, to provide for prosperity for people, expand trade opportunities and access to education,” he said. “There is a great deal that our countries can do together, bilaterally and international.”

The US, he said, had a great interest in Pakistan’s success. “This is not one of those things of a zero-sum game.

The better you do, the happier we are. The better you do, the more better-off the United States is,” he said.

Mr Biden also conveyed the Obama administration’s support for the elected government in Pakistan, saying PM Sharif’s success as a democratically elected leader of Pakistan was “very, very important”.

The Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Dan Feldman, Special Adviser to the PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Jalil Abbas Jilani attended the first meeting.

Mr Biden and Prime Minister Sharif were seated next to each other, smiling broadly.

Mr Sharif also spoke briefly to the media, saying that he had a very constructive meeting with Mr Biden when he visited Washington last year.

“The bilateral relations have improved further. I am looking forward to constructive talks again today,” he said.

Noting that there were a lot of developments taking place all over the world, Mr Sharif said there was a need to exchange views on different subjects and how “we can evolve policies on these issues”.

He did not identify the issues.

Published in Dawn, September 27th , 2014