DAS Elizabeth Horst’s Remarks for Pakistan National Day and 75th Anniversary Commemoration
Good morning and Assalomo-Alaikum. It’s a great honor for me to be here with you alongside Ambassador Khan to commemorate Pakistan’s National Day and the milestone 75th anniversary of U.S.-Pakistan relations. I would like to begin by thanking the Embassy of Pakistan for bringing us together today.
The United States and Pakistan are countries that were born out of ideas. Our founders envisioned an independent, democratic, and free society. There are many things that tie our countries together, and today is a great time to reflect as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of bilateral relations. Since the United States and Pakistan formalized relations on August 15, 1947, we have accomplished a great deal together and we look forward to covering more ground in the future.
As Secretary Blinken and the White House have noted on several occasions, the United States has always viewed a strong, prosperous, and democratic Pakistan as essential for the interests of both of our countries, and I assure you that view is unchanged today. At the State Department and at our Embassy and Consulates throughout Pakistan, we have fostered decades of collaboration between the people of Pakistan and the United States.
Among the challenges our two countries are jointly addressing are boosting trade and economic development to expand prosperity; the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the climate crisis; improving educational access and excellence; and regional peace and security.
On the occasion of our anniversary, I’d like to highlight one area where we’ve seen extraordinary success — the field of education. For more than 70 years, Pakistan has been a key partner in expanding educational opportunities through the largest Fulbright Program in the world. Including Fulbright, the U.S. government brings approximately 800 Pakistanis to the United States every year on a full range of exchanges. That is a remarkable number; each student is an ambassador and champion for the advancement of our relations. Furthermore, our alumni network in Pakistan numbers over 37,000 members, all of whom use the experience they gained in the United States to make meaningful contributions to Pakistan through community service, mentoring and inspiring future generations.
Earlier this year, we broke ground on a new U.S.-Pakistan Education Center in Islamabad, where Pakistani students interested in studying in the United States will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and educational advising services. We also operate 19 Lincoln Corners throughout Pakistan. They offer comfortable spaces for learning and open dialogue, and over 300,000 Pakistanis visit our Corners every year.
Our trade and investment relationship with Pakistan continues to grow. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S.-Pakistan trade increased last year by approximately 200 million dollars in agriculture and energy. From our perspective, there are many emerging opportunities for U.S. investment in Pakistan, especially for the country’s growing digital economy given Pakistan’s English-speaking, young, tech-savvy, and entrepreneurial population. The State Department’s Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs Dilawar (di-LOW-er) Syed traveled to Pakistan last month to engage with the government and private sector leaders on potential U.S.-Pakistan economic partnerships.This year also commemorates the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-Pakistan Women’s Council, a unique public-private partnership between the State Department and Texas A&M University, in cooperation with non-profits, the private sector, and academia in both the United States and Pakistan.
Beyond business advocacy and direct investment, diaspora members continue to critically boost Pakistan’s economic resources. Pakistan is again on track to receive record levels of remittances this year, and a large part of that inflow continues to come from the United States.
As the coronavirus pandemic has unfortunately made clear, health threats do not recognize borders and must be addressed together. Last month, we welcomed a Pakistani delegation to Washington for a bilateral health dialogue. The United States has donated 61.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan so far, making Pakistan one of the largest recipients of U.S. vaccine donations in the world, and have committed to providing another 16 million pediatric vaccines. We are proud to continue our close cooperation with the government of Pakistan to ensure these life-saving vaccines find their way from state-of-the art pharmaceutical facilities and into Pakistani arms. We have also provided more than $70 million in direct support and $13.8 million in in-kind support in COVID-19 assistance to Pakistan for testing, training, and upgrading Pakistan’s emergency operations centers. This includes the recent donation of four mobile testing labs valued at a total of $4.6 million for diagnosing COVID-19 and other communicable diseases in underserved and remote communities.
The success of our partnership comes from the people who participate and invest in it – people like those of you here today. We will not agree on all things, and we don’t need to do so to continue this successful partnership. But we must keep talking and keep sharing ideas and concerns. Through continuing dialogue, we will deepen this 75-year relationship and can look forward to developing it further over the next 75 years.
I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the rest of the day, as well as over the next few months as we continue to commemorate this milestone anniversary with special events in both Pakistan and the United States. We will welcome Ambassador Khan and others to the State Department next month to inaugurate a new exhibit from the American-Pakistan Foundation at our National Museum of American Diplomacy; celebrate our deepening educational cooperation with a focus on Fulbright at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington in October; and join the diaspora community for a number of events throughout the fall. Thank you again for inviting me to join you, and happy anniversary. Pakistan-Amreeka zindabad!
Washington D.C August 14, 2022
