Pakistan is furious over a strong joint statement between India and the United States calling on it to take irreversible steps to ensure that its territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks, and its Foreign Ministry called the document “unjustified and misleading.”
“We take a strong exception to the Pakistan-related assertions made in the selective and unilateral Joint Declaration, devoid of meeting the criteria of objectivity,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
The joint statement issued Tuesday in New Delhi after the 2 + 2 ministerial dialogue between the Indian and defense ministers of foreign affairs and the United States reiterated its call on Pakistan “to take irreversible measures to ensure that its territory is not use for terrorist attacks and to quickly prosecute the perpetrators and planners of the attacks in Mumbai, Uri and Pathankot. “
The statement, issued after talks between Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and their US counterparts Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper, also called for “concerted action” against terrorist networks such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State. and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Six US citizens were among the 166 people killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by a 10-member LeT team from Pakistan. The Uri attack in 2016 and the Pathankot attack in 2016 were attributed to JeM, based in Pakistan.
In its response on Wednesday, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement that failure to learn of the “grave humanitarian and human rights situation” in Kashmir is “tantamount to abdication of international responsibility.”
He said that the “gratuitous and selfish references” in joint statements “cannot conceal the fact that it is India that continues to be the nerve center of state terrorism, as well as being a safe haven for perpetrators of hate crimes against Muslims and Islamophobia. “
He stated that the international community “recognizes the efforts, sacrifices and success of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.”
“As the country that has suffered the most from cross-border terrorism, Pakistan will continue to contribute constructively to regional and global efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.
“It is important that partner countries take an objective view of the peace and security problems in South Asia and refrain from supporting unilateral positions and divorced from basic realities,” he added.
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