WASHINGTON: The office of US president-elect Donald Trump had approved the readout of his conversation with Nawaz Sharif that Islamabad released last week, Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, told a media roundtable at the Pakistan embassy on Monday.

“That is the language that the president-elect used. And it was a very honest and truthful narrative, which we put out with the approval of his office,” Mr Fatemi said. “And if that has created interest and excitement, we are in no way disappointed with it.”

Asked if he was with the prime minister during that call, Mr Fatemi said: “I am special assistant to the PM, so it’s my job to be present at the right place, at the right time.”

When the journalist asked for a clearer answer, he said: “I leave it to your imagination.”

The surprisingly candid readout of the telephone call created a major controversy in Washington where even the White House joined the call for Mr Trump to be more careful while talking to foreign leaders. The US media also criticised Pakistan for releasing details of personal greetings.

The issue resurfaced at the White House news briefing on Monday afternoon as well. “The president-elect of the United States interacting with foreign leaders, it’s incredibly important. It has profound consequences for our country and for our national interests around the world,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest while hinting that Mr Trump should have consulted the State Department before talking to Mr Sharif.

Unfazed by this criticism, Mr Fatemi insisted that the incoming Trump administration would provide Islamabad a “fresh opportunity to burnish its credentials” with Washington.

Even Mr Trump’s sharp comments on Pakistan and Muslim extremism on the campaign trail did not affect the Pakistani diplomat’s optimism. “I have some experience in what [American] campaign rhetoric is,” he said, underlining his experience as a senior Pakistani diplomat to the US going back to the Nixon administration.

Mr Fatemi said statements by Donald Trump and Mike Flynn, his nominee for national security adviser, on the need to confront “radical Islamic terrorism” will not interfere with the “confluence of interests” and mutual goals of the United States and Pakistan.

“We have confluence of interests. We have an identity of views. And we have, most importantly, a track record with the United States of being engaged in relationships that have promoted peace and stability in the entire region,” he said.

“But for Pakistan’s help and cooperation, you would not have been able to achieve many of the goals that the United States had set itself in the 50s and the 60s.”

He pointed out that while Pakistan was working with the United States in persuading the Soviet Union to vacate Afghanistan, others in South Asia were “holding aloft the Soviet banner in Afghanistan”.

Pakistan, he added, paid a heavy price for its stance against the Soviet Union and was forced to host 3.5 million Afghan refugees and was still hosting 2.5 million of them without any support from the international community.

Mr Fatemi, in the United States on a two-week visit, will also visit New York to meet members of the Trump transition team. In Washington, he will meet US lawmakers, Obama administration officials, as well as think-tank experts and media representatives.

The visit is part of an early outreach to establish links with the next US administration.

At the news briefing, Mr Fatemi was also asked if Mr Trump had indeed said that his administration would be “ready and willing to play any role you want me to play” in addressing the “outstanding problems” facing Pakistan.

After Pakistan released the readout, senior Trump aides complained that the Pakistanis were reading more into his polite comments than was justified.

Mr Fatemi declined to say if he expected the Trump administration to strengthen its ties to Islamabad at the expense of Washington’s relationship with New Delhi.

He, however, insisted that the change of government in Washington was “a fresh opportunity to burnish [Pakistan’s] credentials” as a strong Muslim democracy and US ally.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2016