Washington:
The US has said it expects Pakistan to be a responsible stakeholder on security issues and believes that India and Pakistan need to resolve all issues peacefully on their own.
“Our expectation continues to be that Pakistan will be a responsible stakeholder on security issues, in particular the nuclear issue,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.
Kirby said America was concerned about the growing tensions between India and Pakistan and it was precisely the reason US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week.
“You heard Secretary Kerry talk on this very issue... about his concerns about tensions between India and Pakistan right now and our continued belief that both sides need to work these issues out peaceably and on their own,” Kirby said in response to a question.
Kerry made a call to Sharif soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to his Pakistani counterpart and greeted him on the eve of holy month of Ramadan.
“I talked with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif regarding a recent increase in the tensions publicly between India and Pakistan. It’s of enormous concern to all of us for all the obvious reasons,” Kerry had said.
“These are two very, very important countries playing a critical role with respect to regional interests, and it’s very, very important that there be no misinterpretation or miscalculation with respect to any of the back-and-forth and the empowerment some entities might feel as a result of that,” Kerry said.
David Hale, the nominee for the US Ambassador to Pakistan, told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing yesterday, “Pakistan’s relationship with India is critical to Pakistan’s future. The normalisation of relations between the two countries is vital, both to them and to the region.”
Pakistan and India were recently involved in a war of words with leaders from both sides exchanging sharp comments after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s critical remarks about Pakistan during his Dhaka visit and in the wake of India’s military action in Myanmar.
Prime Minister Modi had called up his Pakistani counterpart Sharif earlier last week to greet him on the holy month of Ramzan.
