Islamabad: In response to a statement made last week by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which urged Pakistan to ensure that its territory was not used as a base for attacks by armed groups, Pakistan's foreign ministry has summoned the deputy chief of mission of the US embassy.
The US-India statement was released after a meeting between Biden and Modi at the White House and received criticism from Pakistan, which called it contrary to diplomatic norms. “It was stressed that the United States should refrain from issuing statements that may be construed as an encouragement of India’s baseless and politically motivated narrative against Pakistan,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement.
“It was also emphasised that counterterrorism cooperation between Pakistan and the US had been progressing well and that an enabling environment, centred around trust and understanding, was imperative to further solidifying Pakistan-US ties.”
US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters that Pakistan had taken important steps to counter armed groups, but said Washington advocated for more to be done. “At the same time, however, we have also been consistent on the importance of Pakistan continuing to take steps to permanently dismantle all terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba [LeT] and Jaish-e-Mohammad [Jaish-e-Muhammad or JeM], and their various front organisations and we will raise the issue regularly with Pakistani officials,” he said.
LeT is the terrorist organisation held accountable for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which resulted in the deaths of over 160 people. JeM, on the other hand, took responsibility for a 2019 explosion in Indian-administered Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 40 Indian paramilitary troops.