WASHINGTON: Welcoming the Sharif-Modi meeting as a positive development, the United States has asked the two neighbours to take more steps to reduce tensions.

“We welcome the recent meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders there (Russia) on the sidelines of this (SCO) conference,” State Department Spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing in Washington. “And we also welcome any steps that both countries can take to try to reduce the tensions.”

Improvement in India-Pakistan ties “has been our longstanding position”, and Secretary of State John Kerry also highlighted this in a recent statement, he said.

“We want to see the tensions reduced, and we want to see these issues resolved bilaterally between the two countries,” Mr Kirby said.

“It’s in nobody’s interest for the tensions to rise and to increase, and for the tensions in the region to become less stable in many ways than they already are.”

The US official noted that both countries had professed their commitment to regional peace and this was also the US position.

Mr Kirby said that millions of kids lived in South Asia and “everybody wants to make sure, they have a better future”.

The United States hopes that the leaders in both countries were also trying to pursue this goal. “Ultimately, these are issues that we want to see them solve bilaterally,” he added.

The State Department official, however, refused to get involved in a debate about how some institutions in Pakistan did not want improvement in India-Pakistan relations.

“I didn’t see those comments and I can’t speak for how leaders in either country are going to make announcements on their bilateral relationship – or, frankly, their bilateral tensions,” said Mr Kirby when an Indian journalist said that some leaders in Pakistan were issuing provocative statements.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2015

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