U.S. Secretary of State Price believes there is not a “zero-sum” relationship between the United States, Pakistan, and India and that the pace, breadth, and nature of regional security are an issue for Islamabad and Delhi.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, stated during a press conference that Washington’s alliances with Pakistan and India were “relationships that stand on their own.”
Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, requested earlier this month that Kashmir and other “hot issues” be resolved through serious and earnest dialogue.
The prime minister had remarked in an interview with Al Arabiya, “My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that let us get down at the table and have meaningful and sincere negotiations to tackle our burning concerns like Kashmir.”
Later, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) underlined that talks with India were only possible if the “illegal action of August 5, 2019” was undone and that “negotiations are not conceivable without India’s undoing of this step.”
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokeswoman for the Foreign Office, had also stated that Pakistan would welcome American facilitation to end the impasse with India over the protracted Kashmir dispute.
She was responding to a query from reporters regarding a recent statement made by Masood Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, regarding the potential involvement of the US in the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
Washington has in the past contributed to reducing hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The 2003 cease-fire agreement was negotiated by the Bush administration at the time so that Musharraf’s government could concentrate on the fight on terror.
But lately, the US has adopted a more circumspect stance and stays out of the conflict between Pakistan and India.
Price said reporters during the briefing that in accordance with this approach “We have always advocated for South Asia’s regional stability. We definitely want to see that.”
But I’ll add that “Our connections with India and Pakistan stand on their own when it comes to our partnerships with them. These connections do not appear to us to be zero-sum.”
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He emphasised, “We have always advocated for regional stability in South Asia, but the pace, the extent, and the nature of any discussion between India and Pakistan is a concern for those two countries, India and Pakistan.
The spokesperson also expressed his sympathies to Pakistanis who were impacted by the nation-wide darkness.
He claimed that the US had helped Pakistan overcome a number of obstacles and that “we are prepared to do so in this circumstance if there is something that we are able to provide”.
But he claimed that, at the moment, he was “not aware of any particular demands.”
