NEW DELHI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated late on Monday he had mentioned together with his Pakistani counterpart what he referred to as managing a accountable relationship with neighbouring India.
Blinken’s feedback got here after India’s defence and international ministers opposed a U.S. choice to supply a assist bundle of about $450 million for Pakistan’s fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.
“In our discussions as we speak, we talked in regards to the significance of managing a accountable relationship with India,” Blinken stated after assembly Overseas Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, with out elaborating.
Requested in regards to the F-16 deal, U.S. State Division spokesperson Ned Worth stated that the US had impartial relations with India and Pakistan.
“The connection we’ve with India stands by itself; the connection we’ve with Pakistan stands by itself,” Worth instructed a information convention. “We additionally need to do all the things we will to see to it that these neighbours have relations with each other which can be as constructive as might be attainable.”
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Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars, primarily over the Muslim-majority Himalayan area of Kashmir.
In 2019, they engaged in an aerial battle throughout which India stated it had shot down a Pakistani F-16 after one in every of its personal jets was introduced down. Pakistan denied that one in every of its F-16s was downed.
Individuals-to-people contact between the nations, shaped by a break up of British India in 1947, nearly ended after the 2019 clashes.
(Writing by Krishna N. Das; modifying by Jason Neely)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
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