WASHINGTON (Dunya News) – The United States expressed desire on Wednesday “to continue to expand its security partnership with Pakistan.”
The desire was sounded by State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press conference here when reminded him of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer to work with the US on global peace and regional security.
Prime Minister Shehbaz made this offer earlier this week while responding to a letter from US President Joe Biden, expressing Islamabad’s desire to strengthen bilateral ties.
“We will continue to expand the security partnership between the United States and Pakistan,” Spokesperson Miller said, when asked how Washington could help Islamabad fight the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups.
“We have spoken to that a number of times from this podium. It has been a priority for us and will continue to be so,” he added.
He disagreed with a journalist who claimed that the United States was keen to condemn the arrest of opposition leaders in India, but ignored those in Pakistan.
“I would not agree with that characterisation. We have made clear on a number of occasions that we want to see everyone in Pakistan treated consistent with the rule of law, treated with respect for human rights as is our position with any country in the world,” he maintained.
To a question about an Indian intelligence operator’s attempt to assassinate a Sikh lawyer in New York, he said: “We have made clear to the government of India that we want to see them conduct a full investigation and we continue to look forward to the results of that investigation.”
Replying to a question about UN aid reaching militants in Afghanistan, Miller said: “We require all of our partners’ safeguard in place to ensure the assistance reaches those who need it.”
The US, he said, also monitors “all of our assistance programmes” to ensure that the assistance did not “indirectly benefit the Taliban or could be diverted to unintended recipients.”