US President Barack Obama has made it clear to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that Islamabad should not pursue a discriminatory approach against terrorist outfits by targeting groups in a selective fashion, the White House has revealed.
“One piece that was important to the President is that Pakistan should not discriminate against terrorist groups. That’s something that we’ve made clear in the past and was reiterated on Friday in the bilateral meeting,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said.
The US insistence on this aspect, coming as it did against the backdrop of the widely-held perception that Pakistan acted only against groups resorting to terror within the country, apparently forced Sharif to explicitly identify lashkar-e-Tayyeba in the joint statement.
In the statement, Sharif spoke of “Pakistan’s resolve to take effective action against United Nations-designated terrorist individuals and entities, including lashkar-e-Tayyeba and its affilaites”.
In what was a clear reference to leT, Schultz said that President Obama “highlighted the importance of Pakistan undertaking effective action against
terrorists that seek to undermine peaceful dialogue and destabilise the region”.
At the same time, Schultz said Obama and Sharif “both noted that our two countries are threatened by terrorist groups, and that the Pakistani people have suffered greatly”.
Replying to another question, Shultz said President Obama “deeply values his relationship with Prime Minister Modi” and that United States and India have worked together very closely.
“They have a strong partnership specifically on expanding economic opportunities. That’s something the President has worked hard on,” the spokesman said, adding Obama has “directed his team here at the White House and throughout the administration to focus on our relationship there and seek opportunities to expand cooperation”.
At the State Department, Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner, when asked about Sharif’s continuing anti-India rhetoric after his meeting with Obama, declined to “parse his perception of what he views as the greatest single threat to Pakistan”, but said the two countries need to discuss their concerns through dialogue.
Speaking at the US Institute of Peace on Friday, Sharif had accused India of resorting to an arms build-up and asserted that Pakistan would resort to counter-measures for “credible deterrence”.
“We’ve been very clear that India and Pakistan need dialogue,” Toner said, adding: “They need greater engagement, because frankly, better dialogue, improved dialogue, greater cooperation between those two countries is important for all the security of the entire region.”