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WASHINGTON: The US relationship with India was not at Pakistan’s expense, said the White House while stressing that its ties with Islamabad were “incredibly important to our shared security”.
US President Barack Obama arrives in New Delhi early next week on his second trip to India to build up a relationship that many believe will have a major impact on the South Asian region.
The White House officials, who briefed the media on Wednesday evening on the visit, however, were eager to assure the Pakistanis that this visit would not impact Washington’s ties with Islamabad.
Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, made a key policy statement on Pakistan while responding to a question, which was not exactly about that country.
Moving straight to Pakistan’s desire that the United States should play a more active role in removing tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear neighbours, Mr Rhodes said: “We have, of course, encouraged India and Pakistan to pursue a dialogue to resolve their bilateral issues, and have been very supportive of that process.”
The White House official also addressed an issue that’s often raised by India: terrorism in South Asia.
“I think terrorism is an issue that can unite people who have faced traditional divides, and we saw that in the aftermath of the horrific attack in Peshawar, where India was very quick to issue a statement of condolence and condemnation, and to reach out to the Pakistani people,” he said.
The United States, he said, already had “a robust security cooperation” with Pakistan and had also noted a new seriousness in Islamabad’s desire to deal with the threat of terrorism.
“We’ve seen the Pakistanis take some steps in recent months to go on the offensive against some of the militant groups that have threatened the Pakistani people and Pakistani government, including the Pakistani Taliban,” he said.
Mr Rhodes made it clear that the United States desired to work with all three nations that faced the threat of terrorism in South Asia, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“When you look at the network of extremist groups that operate in that part of the world, from Al Qaeda to the Pakistani Taliban, to the Haqqani network to LeT, we have significant counter-terrorism cooperation with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India that has been a priority of this administration from day one,” he said.
He noted that recently, US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Pakistan and held a ministerial session of the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue in Islamabad.
Mr Rhodes also said that during his visit to Pakistan last week, Secretary Kerry visited Peshawar as well where terrorists had killed 132 school children. This visit, however, was not reported in the media.
Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2015
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