WASHINGTON: Pakistan and India need to pursue closer relations on security front to counter the threat of terrorism, a US Statement Department spokesman said on Saturday, while stressing the need felt by the US to seek closer ties between both countries.
“There’s no zero-sum game here,” spokesman Mark Toner told a regular briefing at the State Department, in his response to a question about the recent remarks by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi made during his three-day visit to Washington, earlier this week. When asked to comment on the mention of cross-border terrorism during his address at the US Congress, the spokesman refused to specify his intended audience and, instead, added that there was no zero-sum game here.
“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,” the spokesman noted, further adding that such a relationship would benefit all in the face of the continuous serious terrorist threats. “We all need to work in a concerted and coordinated fashion to address it, and we’re trying to do so,” he added.
Only a day before Modi was scheduled to address the Congress, a bipartisan group of 18 congressmen wrote a letter to Speaker Paul Rayn, urging him to put the issue of severe violence against Muslims, Christians and Sikhs living in India on top of his agenda for his meeting with Modi. This had resulted from the proceedings of a hearing organised by the Human Rights Commission of the US Congress, only a day earlier, to discuss the human rights violation in India. They told the Speaker that religious minorities in India, including Muslims, continue to live in a climate, where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity, an obvious reference to the activists of the ruling BJP, who have been involved in such incidents. In the letter, the lawmakers cited several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities in India.
