Islamabad protests Biden-Modi statement

Foreign Ministry issues demarche to deputy chief of mission

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan formally protested the US-India joint statement issued after a meeting between President Joe Biden and visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

It said that the US deputy chief of mission was called to the foreign ministry and a demarche was made to him regarding the joint statement, issued on June 22, 2023. The US diplomat was conveyed Pakistan concerns and disappointment at the statement.

“Pakistan’s concerns and disappointment at the unwarranted, one-sided and misleading references to it in the Joint Statement were conveyed to the US side,” the foreign ministry said in the statement.

“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,” it added.

The diplomat was reminded 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 the bilateral ties.

Read Pakistan dismisses terror allegations

The joint statement, issued after Biden-Modi meeting on Thursday, “called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks”.

“President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, ISIS/Da’esh, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizbul Mujhahideen,” the joint statement had said.

On Friday, the Foreign Office issued a hard-hitting statement, dismissing the Pakistan-specific reference in the joint statement, terming it “contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones”.

“Today, we fail to see how the assertions made in the joint statement could strengthen the international resolve to fight terrorism,” the Foreign Office said. “It is thus completely ill-placed to caste any aspersions on Pakistan and its fight against terrorism,” it added.

The Foreign Office said that besides being a state-sponsor of terrorism, India habitually used terrorism bogey to deflect attention from its brutal repression of the Kashmiri people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“Ironically, the joint statement fails to address the key sources of tension and instability in the region and to take cognisance of the grave human rights situation in IIOJK. This is tantamount to abdication of international responsibility,” the statement read.