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US-India joint statement: Days after the release of a joint statement following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden wherein both countries unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism by Pakistan, the same has been echoed during a White House press conference. During the presser, a Pakistani journalist asserted that Islamabad was not “happy” with the joint statement and added the Shehbaz Sharif-led government termed it “misleading and unwarranted”.
“Biden administration to continue…”
In a reply, US State Department official spokesperson Matthew Miller underscored that the Biden administration will continue to force Pakistan to dismantle militant bases from its soil. He said that the Biden administration will continue to force Islamabad to permanently disband all terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and their various front organizations.
“We remain committed to working with Pakistan to address the shared threat posed by terrorist groups throughout the region. At the same time, we have also been consistent on the importance of Pakistan continuing to take steps to permanently disband all terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and their various front organizations,” he said.
“We will raise the issue regularly with Pakistani officials and will continue to work together to counter mutual terrorist threats,” added the US State Department Spokesperson.
Why this chaos?
Notably, when Prime Minister addressed the US Congress during his state visit to America, both nations issued a joint statement wherein it reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen. “They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice,” read the joint statement.
“They noted with concern the increasing global use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and information and communication technologies for terrorist purposes and reaffirmed the importance of working together to combat such misuse,” it added.
Pakistan fumes over joint statement
However, the joint statement became a significant issue in Islamabad where the incumbent Prime Minister and his predecessor Imran Khan were at loggerheads. It termed the statement- “misleading and unwarranted”, and added that the “reference is contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones”. “We consider the Pakistan-specific reference in the ‘Joint Statement from the United States and India’, issued on 22 June 2023, as unwarranted, one-sided, and misleading,” the FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement.
“The reference is contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones. We are surprised that it has been added despite Pakistan’s close counterterrorism cooperation with the US,” he added.
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