WASHINGTON: The outgoing US special representative Marc Grossman has assured the Pakistanis that the United States wanted to help them solve the challenges they faced rather than telling them what to do.

“I am sure that the Pakistanis will solve their own challenges in their own way. And the United States of America is proud to support that effort,” said Mr Grossman while addressing a farewell reception at the residence of Ambassador Sherry Rehman.

The United States, he said, wanted a broad-based relationship, focusing on people-to-people contact and promoting trade and development.

The Pakistanis, he said, were a resilient and tough people who “want to live in a society of tolerance, pluralism and democracy, and a society where they can make choices about their own lives.”

Ambassador Grossman recalled his first posting as a young diplomat in Islamabad from 1977 to 1979 with fondness and said the impact it had on him was a “very important part of my upbringing as a diplomat.

He noted that his last assignment as the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan had an element of destiny, “kismet to it; having started in Pakistan to come back to Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Ambassador Grossman also paid tribute to the Pakistani ambassador; saying said that they had “a great relationship to try to reset Pakistan and America ties”.

Earlier, Ambassador Rehman noted that the outgoing US envoy had to deal with an unprecedented crisis in the Pak-US relations. “This bilateral relationship was in a mode of recurring crisis when I came a year ago and weighed down with baggage from 2011.”

Mr Grossman acknowledged that the task ahead was challenging but agreed to “navigate it to a zone of steady progress and stability, instead of the cycles of highs and lows,” she said.

“If there is an air of hope and positivity about this critical relationship, a good part of the credit goes to Ambassador Grossman,” she appreciated.

Ambassador Rehman said the US and Pakistan were “engaging … as democracies, sharing not only tangibles of geopolitics that we always do, but the economic and commercial interactions that are so critical to shared values”.

The two countries must broaden their bilateral ties by creating opportunities for trade and business.