No change in Kashmir policy, says US State Dept

The US State Department on Wednesday clarified that there is no change in Washington's Kashmir policy and the new administration of President Joe Biden still considers the territory as disputed.

"I want to be very clear there has been no change in US policy in the region," said State Department Spokesperson Ned Price when he was asked regarding an earlier tweet by the department welcoming restoration of 4G services in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir ((IIOJK). The tweet did not mention the region's disputed status. 

Indian restored 4G services in the held valley on February 6, after they were shut down in August 2019 after the revocation by New Delhi of the region's special status.  

On February 9, President Biden called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and agreed to strengthen Indo-Pacific security through the Quad grouping of countries that is seen as a way to push back against China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

Biden spoke to Modi in his first call since taking office last month and noted that India-US ties were held together by a shared commitment to democratic values.

Modi told Biden he would work to elevate the strategic partnership between the two countries, the Indian foreign ministry said in its readout of the call.

Earlier, Defence Secretary General (retd) Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Tuesday that Pakistan was ‘an essential partner’ in the Afghan peace process.

“Pakistan is an essential partner in any peace process in Afghanistan,” Austin said while responding to a question regarding his policy as the top defence official of the country. “Pakistan will play an important role in any political settlement in Afghanistan,” he had added.

He had further said that Pakistan "has taken constructive steps to meet US requests in support of the Afghanistan peace process".

Pakistan, on the other hand, has said that it wants to pursue a bilateral relationship with the US that is not hyphenated or clouded by US interests in other regional countries but is based on mutual understanding.

“In the past, Pakistan was unfortunately seen by Afghanistan prism," said Prime Minister's Special Assistant on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf while addressing a gathering of US policymakers at the Washington-based think tank Wilson Centre titled “US-Pakistan Relations in the Biden Era”.

He had added that the world had undergone an immense transformation in the past four years and the new administration should look beyond Obama-era conversation to build a truly bilateral relationship with Pakistan.