New Delhi: India has shared its concerns with the US about Pakistan’s involvement in harbouring anti-India terrorist groups in Afghanistan. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla held extensive talks and spent considerable time discussing Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“India shared its concerns and perspective on Afghanistan, movement of terrorist groups especially Haqqani network, infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, the role of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
“What we heard from Americans on Afghanistan it’s helpful. They have clear eye what’s happening in Pakistan, they are just engaging, India and US are on the same page,” sources said.
Wendy Sherman will be visiting Pakistan immediately after her India visit. The US is often seen as hyphenating its relations when it comes to India and Pakistan, however, sources familiar with discussions held today call it misplaced perception.
“She is going to Pakistan from here, there is no hyphenation, the US is pretty clear they have a special relationship and partnership with India, this perspective is misplaced” the source added.
India has so far not given recognition to the Taliban. After the meeting between Wendy Sherman and the Indian leadership, there is a feeling that the US is also far from giving legitimacy to the Taliban regime in Kabul.
“Afghanistan, Pakistan was discussed, there is a lot of meeting of minds on Afghanistan, the US is far away from giving legitimacy to Taliban government, leave away recognition, the US think Taliban must do more to get legitimacy, US appreciated India’s role in bringing resolution 2953 in UNSC, whether it is human rights,” said sources.
On freezing of Afghan assets, sources say it seems unlikely that the US will freeze Afghan assets as it is keen to pump in humanitarian assistance. Afghanistan and Pakistan were widely discussed during the recent US-India bilateral summit and also recently concluded Quad first in-person leaders meet. Moreover, the sources also divulged that the 2+2 dialogue between India and the United States is expected to take place in November and the two countries will hold a meeting of the Defence Policy Group (DPG) soon.
They said that India and the US will have a series of engagements and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar will be visiting the United States. A counter-terrorism and designation dialogue between the two countries will be held soon, the sources added.
