Blinken promised strong US support for Pakistan as it dries out and rebuilds from the floods WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday on Pakistan to seek debt relief from its close partner China as floods devastate the South Asian country. Blinken promised strong US support for Pakistan as it dries out and rebuilds from the floods, which have submerged one-third of the country, an area the size of the United Kingdom. “We send a simple message. We are here for Pakistan, just as we were during past natural disasters, looking ahead to rebuild,” Blinken said after talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “I also urged our colleagues to engage China on some of the important issues of debt relief and restructuring so that Pakistan can more quickly recover from the floods,” Blinken said. China is a key economic and political partner of Pakistan, pushing ahead with a $54-billion “economic corridor” that will build infrastructure and give Beijing an outlet to the Indian Ocean. Washington, whose Cold War alliance with Islamabad has frayed, has repeatedly charged that China will reap the benefits while Pakistan will face unsustainable debt. The warnings by the United States — which considers China its preeminent global competitor — have repeatedly been brushed aside by Pakistan. But Beijing has faced concerns about security following a series of attacks linked to separatists, including a suicide bombing in April on a minibus from a Chinese cultural program that killed four people, three of them Chinese. Some 1,600 people have died in Pakistan’s floods and more than seven million displaced, amid fears that such severe disasters will become more commonBlinken promised strong US support for Pakistan as it dries out and rebuilds from the floods due to climate change. The United States has committed $56 million in humanitarian aid and sent 17 planes full of supplies, with Blinken promising to look at longer-term support, as well.