US expects sustained action against terrorist groups from Pakistan

WASHINGTON: After US President Joe Biden's "Pakistan one of most dangerous nations in the world" remarks, America once again reiterated that it expects sustained action against terrorist groups from Pakistan.

US State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel on Monday (local time) in a media briefing told reporters, "We seek a strong partnership with Pakistan on counter-terrorism and expect sustained action against all militant and terrorist groups. And we look forward to the cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats."

Earlier, US President Biden said Pakistan may be one of the "most dangerous nations in the world" during an address in California while speaking about the changing global geopolitical situation. The US president reasoned that he thought so as Pakistan has "nuclear weapons without cohesion".

According to the transcript, available on the White House website, of Biden's address at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reception in California, he said: "... And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any cohesion."

Notably, Pakistan on Saturday summoned the US Ambassador Donald Blome for clarification after President Biden described Pakistan as "one of the most dangerous countries in the world."

Meanwhile, the US on Sunday (local time) backtracked on President Joe Biden's alarm over Pakistan's ability to secure its nuclear arsenal and said that the country can secure its nukes.

Today again Patel said, "I will reiterate again that the US has always viewed secure and prosperous Pakistan, its critical to US interest and more broadly to US values, our long-standing cooperation."

Pakistan has always sold its false narrative of being the victim of terror, however, its doublespeak has been caught many times. Moreover, many of the terrorist groups were deliberately created by the Pakistani state to serve its purposes.

However, its ability to control the various terrorist outfits is uneven and some of them have turned against their creator. It establishes the fact that using terrorist outfits for state objectives can have very negative consequences for the stability of the state itself.

"Few countries have suffered from terrorism like Pakistan and have shared interest in combatting threats - to regional instability and internal security like TTP," said Patel.

Notably, Pakistan is miffed at the Taliban on several issues, but more so on the militant group, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which it considers a grave threat. The TTP is protected by the Afghan Taliban, sheltered mostly in border areas in Afghanistan and now regrouping in Pakistan's Swat and nearby tribal areas.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raised questions over the "merits" of the US-Pakistan relationship and said that Washington's ties with Islamabad have not served the "American interest".

"It's a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well nor serving the American interests," Jaishankar said at an event organized by the Indian American community in Washington.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh promptly conveyed to US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin India's concerns over Washington's decision to provide a sustenance package for Pakistan's F-16 fleet. "It's really for the United States today to reflect on the merits of this relationship and what they get by it," Jaishankar asserted.

"For someone to say I am doing this because it is all counter-terrorism content and so when you are talking of an aircraft like a capability of an F-16 where everybody knows, you know where they are deployed and their use. You are not fooling anybody by saying these things," Jaishankar noted.

"If I were to speak to an American policy-maker, I would really make the case (that) look what you are doing," Jaishankar strongly asserted.