U.S. Does Not Support Declaring Pakistan A ‘Terrorist State’

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan during a bilateral meeting (Source: PTI)

The United States today said it does not support declaring Pakistan a 'terrorist state' but will continue to work with the governments in the region to eliminate safe havens which also pose a threat to India.

The U.S. also called for a "meaningful dialogue" between India and Pakistan to address differences including the Kashmir issue and to bring down the level of tension in the region. State Department spokesperson John Kirby expressed confidence that Pakistan has kept its nuclear arsenals safe from terrorists.

Asked if the government would support a bill in the Congress and an online petition declaring Pakistan a 'terrorist state', Kirby at his daily press briefing said "I have not seen anything specifically about such a bill, and obviously we don't." He did not comment on any pending legislation that may be coming in this regard.

What we – what I would say is common threat, common challenge in the region, and we're going to continue to work with Pakistan, with Afghanistan, and the Secretary (of State) just came back from the Afghanistan conference in Brussels. And obviously it's a threat to the Indian people as well. So we're going to continue to work with the governments in the region to try to address these common threats and challenges, and we've always said that more can be done about the safe havens and that's – we're going to, again, try to work as cooperatively as we can to that end

John Kirby, U.S. State Department spokesperson

He said the U.S.'s position on Kashmir has not changed and it is for India and Pakistan to address the problem.

On the Kashmir issue, our position has not changed. We want this to be worked out between both sides, the issue of Kashmir. And generally, we obviously want to see the tensions that exist right now be brought down and for dialogue to take its place – meaningful dialogue to try to address these issues bilaterally between the countries.

John Kirby, U.S. State Department spokesperson

He added that the US wanted India and Pakistan to resolve their differences.

"There are still differences of opinion that exist between them; and as I said earlier, we want them to work through those differences. We have differences with many countries too, and we continue to try to work through them," he added.