ISLAMABAD – Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has responded over theissue of military aid suspension by United States.

He said on Sunday that the matter would be taken up during Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo’s upcoming visit to the country.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Qureshi clarified that the moneyblocked by the US military was part of reimbursement for the loss of livesand financial losses Pakistan suffered while leading the fight againstterrorism.

“And this [deal] was done even before this government came into being,” headded.

Pompeo and the top US military officer, General Joseph Dunford,are scheduled to visit Islamabad on September 5.

“We will sit and discuss this with him [Pompeo]. We will try to improvebilateral ties between the two countries. We will listen to him and presentour point of view to him as well,” said the foreign minister.

Blaming the previous PML-N government of the current state of bilateralties with the US, Qureshi said, “The last government had no engagement, nodialogue [with the US administration] … in fact there was an almost totalbreakdown of talks. But we will try to revive the talks.”