ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned from his official visit to the United States on Friday after making “a new beginning” in the bilateral relationship plagued by mistrust.

“The primary achievement of the visit is that a new beginning has been made by the elected leadership of Pakistan to build a relationship with the US based on mutuality of interest,” Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said at his weekly media briefing.

Much of the focus before and during the visit remained on the controversial drone attacks in tribal areas, making many to measure its success using the drone yardstick.

But there was much more to the trip than just drones and as noted by the spokesman noted the joint statement issued at the end of the visit covered “wide ground”.

“The prime minister focused on all issues of interest and concern to Pakistan including the issues of economic growth, seeking US cooperation to solve energy problems of Pakistan, enhancing trade cooperation, social sector development, counter-terrorism, regional stability and striking a balance in the bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and mutuality of benefit,” Mr Chaudhry said.

A major outcome of the visit was announcement of the date for the revived Strategic Dialogue, which would now be held by March 2014. Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Pakistan in August had said that the Strategic Dialogue suspended after the challenging events of 2011 would be restarted, but no timeframe was then given.

The Strategic Dialogue would provide the “comprehe-nsive framework” for the reset. Both contentious issues and possible areas of collaboration would be discussed at experts’ level in the Working Groups before being reviewed at the ministerial level.

The Strategic Dialogue would be guided by a joint statement on the Obama-Sharif meeting. The prime minister in his various meetings in the US made a conscious effort to present a moderate image of himself and candidly voiced the challenges he faced in the realm of security. He advocated closer bilateral ties, but importantly avoided hyping the call.

“The visit would now enable the two countries to rebuild ties on the basis of mutual respect and interest, and bring it out of the distrust witnessed in the recent past,” the spokesman noted.

Contrary to the criticism of not having been able to get the drones stopped, the government believes that it fared well on the issue.

“We will also continue to push it at the international track. This strategy is working and we should give it some more time,” Mr Chaudhry said.

The government now intends to take up the matter in the Strategic Dialogue’s Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Law Enforcement and later at the ministerial meeting.

The Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Haji Adeel, hoped that Mr Sharif’s visit would help in taking the relationship beyond difficulties of the recent past.

He, however, noted that there was little in the visit for ordinary people to cheer about, who are daily challenged by rising cost of living, terrorism and energy shortages.

The Chairman of Senate Defence Committee, Senator Mushahid Hussain, also looks favourably at the outcome of the visit and said that it went as per expectations.

PTI leader Dr Shireen Mazari, whose party had been looking at the visit exclusively through the drone prism, said: “It was unfortunate that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif failed to categorically tell President Obama that drone strikes must stop. Instead, all the PM could muster before Mr Obama was to urge him to halt these illegal strikes.”

Former Ambassador to the US Dr Maleeha Lodhi said: “The positive optics and outcome of the visit marks the start of a process of reset of relations based as much on Pakistan’s intrinsic importance as on regional concerns.

“The public messaging of the visit indicated an effort by both sides to get past the past and build a new relationship especially for the post 2014 period.”

“We should also not minimise the salutary impact of that an improved Pak-US relationship will have on Pakistan’s relations other countries,” she added.