NEW DELHI: Pakistan has been an instigator of problems that India is tackling in its neighbourhood, though it has been projecting itself as a ‘facilitator’, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.
“Both in the bilateral discussions as well as in the forum discussions, there was a clear sense that a more careful examination and monitoring of Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan was needed,” Shringla said in a press briefing after the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden and the Quad Summit. “An important factor which sometimes gets overlooked is when you see Pakistan, protecting itself as a facilitator, whereas, it has really been in many senses an instigator of some of the problems that we are dealing with in our neighbourhood and beyond.”
The foreign secretary went on to add that in the bilateral meeting, there were concerns expressed on Pakistan continuing support for an approach in Afghanistan, which was not conducive to the international community’s expectations.
“Both sides denounced any use of terrorist proxies and emphasised the importance of denying the logistical, financial or military support to terrorist groups, which could be used to plan or launch terror attacks,” he said and added that India and the US would be organising a counter-terrorism joint working group.
Elaborating on the bilateral meeting, the foreign secretary said that the leaders laid emphasis on developing trade and economic relations between the two countries. “The two leaders felt that they should ask their ministers concerned — Commerce and Industries Minister in case of India and US Trade Representative — to see how to impart greater dynamism to the trade bilateral relationship, how to more speedily implement some of the decisions that could involve further accelerating the trade ties between the two countries,” Shringla said.
There was also a discussion on the TRIPS paper and India appreciated the US decision to support the initiative by India and South Africa, to seek a waiver of IPR at the WTO, so that vaccines could be made more widely available, particularly in the developing world, the foreign secretary added.