Pakistan’s foreign ministry summons US embassy’s deputy mission chief over US-India statement

Pakistan’s foreign ministry summoned the United States embassy’s deputy chief of mission, on Monday, over a statement that was made last week during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden’s meeting.

The statement called for Pakistan to ensure that its territory was not used as a base for militant attacks. It was released after the leaders of the two countries engaged in a dialogue at the White House on Friday.

Pakistan criticised it calling it contrary to the 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 emphasized that counter-terrorism co-operation between Pakistan and the U.S. had been progressing well and that an enabling environment, centred around trust and understanding, was imperative to further solidifying Pakistan-U.S. ties.”

Pakistan needs to do more to counter terrorist groups, says Miller

US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller in a daily news briefing told reporters that Pakistan had taken significant steps to counter terrorist groups, however, 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, and their various front organizations and we will raise the issue regularly with Pakistani officials,” he said.

Imran Khan mocks Pakistan government over Modi-Biden statement 

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan mocked retired Pakistani army general Qamar Javed Bajwa, questioning the effectiveness of his “countless trips” to the United States while referring to a joint statement from the United States and India where Pakistan was strongly condemned for cross-border terrorism and the use of terrorist proxies.

This comes after the White House released a US-India joint statement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden calling upon Pakistan to take immediate action “to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks”.

In a tweet Friday afternoon, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader wrote, “Gen Bajwa along with his PDM cronies claimed that I had isolated Pakistan internationally.” 

“The question we want to ask him and PDM is that after a year in government and countless trips of Pakistan’s FM to the US, the joint India/US statement reduces Pakistan to a promoter of cross-border terrorism in India and nothing more,” Khan added in his tweet. 

Modi-Biden statement

The United States and India in a joint statement after the meeting between PM Modi and Biden said the leaders stand together “to counter global terrorism and unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations.”

President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen.  

“They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice. They noted with concern the increasing global use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and information and communication technologies for terrorist purposes and reaffirmed the importance of working together to combat such misuse,” the statement added. 

(With inputs from agencies)