American diplomat handed demarche over US-India ‘misleading’ mantra against Pakistan

• US deputy chief of mission summoned to lodge protest over remarks: FO.
• Statement says Pakistan’s concerns, disappointment conveyed to US side.
• US urged to avoid issuing statement over India’s narrative against Pakistan.

The American diplomat was summoned by the Foreign Office on Monday to lodge a protest over US-India joint statement calling upon Pakistan “to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks”.

“The US Deputy Chief of Mission was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this evening and a demarche was made to him regarding the US-India Joint Statement, issued on 22 June 2023,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly demanded Islamabad take steps to make sure that Pakistani soil is not being used in "launching terror attacks".

The joint statement was issued after the meeting of Biden with the Indian premier in Washington last week.

The two leaders called for action against extremist groups allegedly based in Pakistan such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

“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,” the 58-point statement issued by the White House read.

Responding to the joint statement, the FO said Pakistan’s concerns and disappointment at the “unwarranted, one-sided and misleading references to it in the Joint Statement were conveyed to the US side”.

It was stressed that the US should refrain from issuing statements that may be construed as encouragement of India’s baseless and politically motivated narrative against Pakistan, it added.

The FO communique also emphasised that counter-terrorism cooperation between Pakistan and US had been progressing well and that an enabling environment, centred around trust and understanding, was imperative to further solidifying bilateral ties between the two countries.

The US-India joint statement also reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda, Daesh and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen.

Modi and Biden also demanded action against the perpetrators of attacks, including the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai and the Pathankot incident.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also rejected the US-India joint statement.

Reacting to the statement, FM Bilawal advised big powers not to make “terrorism a victim of geopolitics”.

“I don’t believe there is any reason for Pakistan to be insecure about its relationship with the world or its bilateral partnership with America as a result of increasingly close cooperation between the US and India,” the foreign minister said while addressing the National Assembly session last week

Speaking in the lower house, Asif said that Pakistan was paying a heavy price for serving as a frontline state in the two Afghan wars.

“Terrorism entered Pakistan because it acted as an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism,” he said, regretting that the sacrifices of Pakistan were not acknowledged.