Foreign Office says failure to recognize serious situation in India-held Kashmir is tantamount to abdication of international responsibility
Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday rejected what it termed “unwarranted references” to Pakistan in a joint statement issued by India and the U.S. after the conclusion of the two nations’ 2+2 Dialogue in Washington.
The anti-Pakistan assertions made by the Indian ministers of defense and external affairs during their joint press conference were equally reprehensible and “we also take exception to the selective and one-sided nature of the joint statement,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office added.
In the joint statement, issued after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper with India’s Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar, the ministers “called on Pakistan to take immediate, sustained and irreversible action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for terrorism against other countries in any manner, and to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of cross-border terrorist attacks, including 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot.”
The Foreign Office statement noted that the ongoing humanitarian and human rights crisis in India-held Jammu and Kashmir had been “caused by India’s unilateral and illegal measures of Aug. 5, 2019, and its belligerent rhetoric and actions pose a serious threat to peace and security in South Asia.” It said that failure to recognize this serious situation was “tantamount to abdication of international responsibility.”
The statement added that the international community recognized Pakistan’s efforts, sacrifices and successes in the fight against terrorism. It said Pakistan believed India’s state-backed terrorism in India-held Kashmir, and its repeated threats to Pakistan, harmed regional peace and security.
“Our concerns and rejection of the unwarranted reference to Pakistan in the U.S.-India joint statement have been conveyed to the U.S. side through diplomatic channels,” the statement added.