US President-elect Donald Trump has expressed the hope that bilateral ties between the United States and Pakistan will improve in the future, Radio Pakistan quoted Pakistan's Ambassador to US Jalil Abbas Jilani as saying on Friday.
The envoy said Trump told him he wanted to see better US-Pakistan relations in the future at a dinner he [Trump] hosted for foreign ambassadors.
Trump, who takes oath on Friday as the 45th US president, "pleasantly" referred to the phone call Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made to him in November last year, said Jilani.
He also extended good wishes for Pakistan during his conversation with the ambassador.
The Sharif-Trump telephone call became controversial when the prime minister’s office released a readout of that call.
In a language considered "unusual" for a US president, Trump had in his conversation with the PM expressed willingness to solve "fantastic" Pakistan's problems. Calling Sharif a "terrific guy", Trump had also said he would "love" to visit Pakistan.
Read: Trump expresses willingness to solve 'fantastic' Pakistan's problems
The surprisingly candid readout of the telephone call created a major controversy in Washington where even the White House joined the call for Trump to be more careful while talking to foreign leaders. The US media also criticised Pakistan for releasing details of personal greetings.
Later, the Trump transition team had issued its own version of the telephone call, saying that Sharif and Trump did have a ‘productive conversation’, but it lacked the “flowery language” included in the Pakistani version of this talk.
