US urges Pakistan, India to strengthen security ties
Says closer ties will benefit everyone, including Afghanistan
PHOTO: Reuters
The United States has called on Pakistan and India to pursue closer relations with each other on the security front.
“We need to pursue closer relations with India, with Pakistan, and they need to also pursue closer relations on the security front, certainly, with each other,” US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news briefing in Washington DC on Saturday.
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“That’s to the benefit of all of us … and that includes Afghanistan as well, because there continue to be serious terrorist threats,” he said in response to a question on the remarks India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made on terrorism during his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress earlier this week.
Asked about what message Modi was trying to send with his comments on cross-border terrorism and to whom, Toner said: “I’m certainly not going to speculate on what his intended audience was or what his intended message was, beyond saying that there’s no zero-sum game here.”
However, the State Department spokesman added that “I do agree with him … [that] there’s no justification for terrorism, and we all need to work in a concerted and coordinated fashion to address it, and we’re trying to do so.”
India's Modi inaugurates $290m dam in Afghanistan
Modi gave a speech before the US Congress on Wednesday, calling for a closer security relationship between Delhi and Washington.
Although he did not name Pakistan, the Indian premier said deeper US-Indian security cooperation should “isolate anyone who harbours, supports or sponsors terrorists”.
“The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight,” Modi said. “We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation,” he added.
The Indian premier also stressed that India is committed to helping rebuild a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, and said he considers terrorism the biggest threat in Afghanistan as well as elsewhere in South Asia.
China tells world to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty
Toner’s comments came a day after Pakistan and the United States blamed each other for the current strain in bilateral relationship while Islamabad warned Washington that continuing drone strikes would imperil ties.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2016.
“We need to pursue closer relations with India, with Pakistan, and they need to also pursue closer relations on the security front, certainly, with each other,” US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news briefing in Washington DC on Saturday.
MPs concerned at India’s interceptor missile test
“That’s to the benefit of all of us … and that includes Afghanistan as well, because there continue to be serious terrorist threats,” he said in response to a question on the remarks India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made on terrorism during his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress earlier this week.
Asked about what message Modi was trying to send with his comments on cross-border terrorism and to whom, Toner said: “I’m certainly not going to speculate on what his intended audience was or what his intended message was, beyond saying that there’s no zero-sum game here.”
However, the State Department spokesman added that “I do agree with him … [that] there’s no justification for terrorism, and we all need to work in a concerted and coordinated fashion to address it, and we’re trying to do so.”
India's Modi inaugurates $290m dam in Afghanistan
Modi gave a speech before the US Congress on Wednesday, calling for a closer security relationship between Delhi and Washington.
Although he did not name Pakistan, the Indian premier said deeper US-Indian security cooperation should “isolate anyone who harbours, supports or sponsors terrorists”.
“The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight,” Modi said. “We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation,” he added.
The Indian premier also stressed that India is committed to helping rebuild a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, and said he considers terrorism the biggest threat in Afghanistan as well as elsewhere in South Asia.
China tells world to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty
Toner’s comments came a day after Pakistan and the United States blamed each other for the current strain in bilateral relationship while Islamabad warned Washington that continuing drone strikes would imperil ties.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2016.