WASHINGTON: Pakistan is seeking deepened economic, trade and political ties with the United States despite differences over how to conduct joint anti-terror efforts, says Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

In an interview to the Voice of America radio, the minister also said that close cooperation between the US and Pakistan was vital for a smooth security transition and stability in Afghanistan after 2014 when most American troops would leave that country.

The interview precedes an expected visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Islamabad for talks on bilateral relations and Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan.

Mr Iqbal conceded that Pakistan would be the first to suffer if a smooth political transition did not happen in Afghanistan and the country remained unstable.

He recalled that the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and subsequent civil war in the 1990s had caused up to four million Afghans to seek refuge in Pakistan.

The minister noted that about three million refugees still lived in Pakistan, causing a strain on the national economy. The dislocated population, he said, was also partly blamed for the rise in militancy on both sides of the border.

That’s why, Mr Iqbal said, Pakistan needed to work very closely with the United States and other Nato countries so that this transition could be managed in a peaceful manner. “My greatest worry is not just 2014, but post-2014 because in the last 10 years there was a big war economy which was constructed in Afghanistan and, as the [foreign] forces and the military withdraws from Afghanistan, this war economy will collapse and this is going to cause many dislocations,” he warned.

“Now again, if there is an influx of Afghan refugees or unemployed Afghan youth who come to Pakistan, we would have very serious implications.”

Mr Iqbal said he saw strong ties with the United States, particularly in economy, energy and trade, as critical for Pakistan, adding that there were a number of US-funded projects in place as part of efforts to help Pakistan overcome its energy and power crisis.

Mr Iqbal also rejected suggestions that the recent warming of Pakistan’s traditionally strong ties with neighbouring China were meant to move away from the relationship with the United States.

“There are some areas in which cooperation of US is not substitutable. For example, [the] United States is a major export market for Pakistan’s textile sector, and we would like to develop it further,” he says.

“Similarly, the opportunity of learning in the universities of [the] US is also second to none. We would like more and more of our young boys and girls to have access to higher education in [the] US.”

The United States, he noted, had been a major trading partner and investor in Pakistan and Islamabad would like to further enhance these ties.