Pakistan protests Modi-Biden statement on cross-border terrorism; US reacts

In response to the India-US joint statement calling on Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used for terror acts, Islamabad on Monday summoned the US embassy's deputy chief to voice its concern at the "unwarranted, one-sided and misleading references to it in the joint statement."

Pakistan had handed over a demarche to deputy chief of mission Andrew Schofer, urging the US to refrain from issuing statements that may be "construed as encouragement of India’s baseless and politically motivated narrative against Pakistan." 

The statement by Pakistan's Foreign Office read: "It was also emphasised that counter-terrorism cooperation between Pakistan and US was progressing well and that an enabling environment centred around trust and understanding was imperative to further solidify Pakistan-US ties." 

Islamabad's response came after India and the US issued a joint statement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US state visit. In the joint statement, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen. 

They also strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice.

Pakistan immediately protested the joint statement calling it "contrary to diplomatic norms." The country's FO had also expressed surprise at the statement considering "Pakistan’s close counterterrorism cooperation with the US."

However, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller reacted to Pakistan's demarche during his daily news briefing. Miller said that while Pakistan had taken important steps to counter terrorist groups, Washington advocated for more to be done. 

"At the same time, however, we have also been consistent on the importance of Pakistan continuing to take steps to permanently dismantle all terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and their various front organizations and we will raise the issue regularly with Pakistani officials," he said. 

LeT is the group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks which claimed over 160 people while Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Pulwama  2019 bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian paramilitary troops.