WASHINGTON: Only a more effective coordination among South Asian nations like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan could defeat terrorism in the region, says the US State Department.

At a news briefing in Washington on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the United States would continue to work closely with these countries to achieve this goal.

“Part of the solution is more effective coordination … Pakistan and India, the United States, Afghanistan — all those countries have to work more closely together,” he said.

The spokesman noted that terrorist groups operate in an environment that allows them to carry out their activities. That’s why, he added, all governments in the region should be diligent about taking the fight to these terrorist groups that may … use safe haven in one country to carry out attacks on another country.

A more coordinated strategy would require “effectively cordoning off and really choking off these terrorist groups. And we all need to do a better job at it,” he explained.

Mr Toner said that the United States was already working closely with both India and Pakistan and would continue to do so.

“We’ve been very clear publicly and privately about our concerns about Pakistan’s efforts to combat terrorism in the region and the need for it to do so,” said the State Department official when a journalist suggested that some terrorist groups in the region were still using the Pakistani territory to carry out cross-border attacks.

“But we need to work effectively with all the countries in the region in order to increase our ability to combat terrorism and to bring stability to the region,” he added.

Mr Toner said the United States certainly recognised that India had felt the scourge of terrorism on several occasions and would continue to work with India on more effective counter-terrorism efforts.

He agreed with the observation that only the innocent people in both India and Pakistan suffered when terrorists were allowed to operate.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2016