US Vice President Kamala Harris asked Pakistan to take action on terror groups

Washington : US Vice President Kamala Harris “suo moto” referred to Pakistan’s role in the context of terrorism during her bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and said there were terror groups that were working in that country and asked Islamabad to take action so that these groups do not impact on the security of the US and India, officials said on Friday.

Briefing the media after the first in-person meeting between US Vice President Harris and PM Modi on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said: “In context of terrorism, when the issue of terrorism came up, the Vice President suo moto referred to Pakistan’s role in that regard, and said there were terror groups that were working there, and she asked Pakistan to take action so that these groups do not impact on US security and that of India.”
“She agreed on the briefing of the Prime Minister on the issue of cross-border terrorism and the fact that India has been a victim of cross-border terrorism for several decades now, and on the need to rein in and closely monitor Pakistan’s support for such terrorist groups,” he said.

The meeting with Kamala Harris lasted over an hour. The discussions were substantive. The meeting reflected warmth and cordiality and covered a number of areas, from Covid-19, terrorism, cooperation in the tech sector, cyber security etc, he said.

On the issue of democracy, Harris in her media statement had said that it is incumbent on the two nations to protect democracies in the best interests of people of the two nations.

“As democracies around the world are under threat, it is imperative that we defend democratic principles and institutions within our respective countries and around the world. And that we must do to strengthen democracies at home,” she said.

To a question on the issue, Shringla said that the US Vice President “appreciated the fact that both of our countries represented large and successful democracies and that we needed to continue to work, not only within our own countries but with other countries to promote democracy”.

“In the discussions she did mention that the US Congress was highly appreciative and kept noting the fact that India and the US represented the two largest democracies, and there was a great deal of appreciation of how both our democracies functioned.”