WASHINGTON: The United States (US) has on Wednesday urged the two nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan and India, to initiate dialogue on the issues raising alarm for heightened tensions in the near future. The US State Department’s spokesperson Heather Nauert said that both parties should sit and discuss the escalating border tensions between the two South Asian countries during the recent weeks.
As per reports from the Indian media on Tuesday, meeting of the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India is possibly in sight within this week in Kabul. The start of the International Conference on Afghanistan this Wednesday, may lead to discussions on the sidelines or a dialogue between both the parties.
Stipulating any such meetings to take place, it would be the first face-to-face interaction between the senior officials of both the countries since the National Security Advisors met in Bangkok in December 2017.
Ms Nauert in response to the questions about the Afghanistan conference stated that main agenda was to talk about the broader regional perspectives including India and Pakistan’s interests within the region. She stated that the US was looking forward to this meeting with great ‘enthusiasm’, in order to initiate dialogue between the two nuclear-armed countries.
She briefed that the delegations from Afghanistan, India and the United States met in Kabul on Tuesday over the Kabul Process Conference. The fourth round of the trilateral consultations discussed the US and Indian civilian assistance to Afghanistan, as well as issues of mutual interests to the three countries in the region.