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WASHINGTON
The United States will place"reciprocal restrictions" on the movement of Pakistani diplomats in the country from May 1, forcing them to stay within 40km of the city they are posted in, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.
In an interview with the Voice of America's Uzbek service, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon said the United States was doing so because Islamabad had already imposed similar restrictions on US diplomats in Pakistan. Take a look: FO summons US ambassador over death of biker in accident involving American diplomat
"Typically, these kinds of restrictions are reciprocal in nature, so I'll just leave it at that," said Mr Shannon when asked if the US government was going to restrict the movement of Pakistani diplomats in the country.
Asked if the Trump administration had notified the Pakistani government, the senior US official said:"Our diplomats are under travel restrictions. They can travel further, but they have to notify the government of Pakistan." Mr Shannon tried to downplay the impact of the US decision by adding that such practices were"very common in diplomacy", and instead of focusing on this the need was to look at continued engagement between the two countries.
