Washington (Web Desk/Agencies): The United States (US) State Department has said that Washington supports direct talks between India and Pakistan but the scope of negotiations should be determined by the two neighbouring countries.
“We value our important relationships with both India and Pakistan,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in response to a question from a Pakistani TV channel reporter at his daily news briefing on Thursday.
“As we have said, we support direct discussions between India and Pakistan, but the pace, scope and character should be determined by those two countries, not by us,” Miller added.
Relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated since August 5, 2019, when New Delhi unilaterally annexed the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, leading to heightened tensions between them. Official talks between the two countries have remained suspended since then.
Answering another question, Miller said that the US and Pakistan both have a common goal of addressing regional security threats.
“We partner with Pakistan on security through our high-level counter-terrorism dialogue, including several counter-terrorism capacity building programmes, and we support a series of US-Pakistan military-to-military engagements,” he said.
“We are in regular communication with Pakistani leaders as a part of our partnership on CT issues, and we will continue to discuss regional security in detail, including through our annual counter-terrorism dialogue and other bilateral consultations,” Miller added.