Kerry said the United States had been speaking to all the countries in the region about the issue, and appreciated Pakistan’s role in eliminating the threat. US and India have to keep faith in our democratic values and respect the rights of all our citizens when countries look for address the issue with use of force, US-India have upheld the rule-based global order.
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“Secretary Kerry and I also agreed on the need for Pakistan to do more to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice quickly”, she said.
In a seeming balancing act a day after he slammed Pakistan for making distinctions between “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists”, U.S. secretary of state John Kerry on Wednesday said Pakistan itself has been a victim of terrorism and lost over 50,000 people to violent acts.
Kerry said one must not allow terrorists to succeed and it was important to strike at the root cause.
“It is clear that Pakistan has work to do in order to push harder against its indigenous groups that are engaged in extremist activities”, including the Taliban-linked Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Kerry said. “So it also means that we have to build bridges of tolerance and acceptance, compassion, mutual understanding among every religion and sect”.
Over the past two days, Kerry had asked Pakistan to do more towards clearing the terrorist havens from its territory, saying groups such as the Islamic State, al Qaeda, LeT and JeM can not be fought by a nation alone.
“The US and India will have to keep faith in our democratic values and uphold the freedom that defines our countries”, Kerry said, while delivering a speech at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.
He said that “progress was being made” by Pakistan which is now “moving (against terrorism) at a greater pace”.
The Pakistan Army has launched military operations in the troubled North Waziristan region, which is said to be the base of the Haqqani group.
“The US stands with India on all matters of terrorism, no matter where it comes from”, Kerry said at a joint news conference with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Kerry, who landed in Delhi on Monday night for the second round of strategic and commercial dialogue with India, was scheduled to leave on Wednesday after his meeting with PM Narendra Modi.
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Responding to a question on Kerry getting delayed for events and having to cancel visits to religious sites due to inclement weather, Kirby pointed out that many meetings at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department including his daily news conference does not start on time even when there is no rain.
