US President Joe Biden joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday in warning Pakistan to crack down on extremists attacking New Delhi.
In a joint statement issued during Modi’s state visit to Washington, the two leaders called for action against Pakistan-based extremist groups 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 steps to ensure that no territory under its control is used to launch terrorist attacks,” the statement said.
They called on Pakistan to punish the perpetrators of attacks, including the bloody siege of Mumbai in 2008.
India under Modi has taken an increasingly hard line with Pakistan, announcing an airstrike in 2019 in response to an attack.
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Historically, the United States has been a close partner to Pakistan, but its patience has run out over ties between Afghanistan’s Taliban and Islamabad’s powerful military and intelligence apparatus.
The Biden administration has kept Pakistan at arm’s length since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, in contrast to warmer relations with India.
India and the United States also expressed “deep concern over the deteriorating situation in Myanmar,” where the army overthrew a fledgling civilian government in 2021.
Announcement – Scroll to Continue
The two countries called for “the release of all those arbitrarily detained, the establishment of a constructive dialogue and Myanmar’s transition to an inclusive federal democratic system.”
The United States has imposed a series of sanctions on the Myanmar junta, but New Delhi has maintained a relatively cordial relationship, aware that the country borders volatile parts of northeast India.
The statement released by the White House referred to the country as Myanmar and not the former name of Burma, which is used by the United States.
sct/dw
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