US urges India, Pak to maintain direct communications

Washington: The United States urged India and Pakistan to maintain direct lines of communication in the interest of preserving regional stability and reiterated that the Donald Trump administration stands ready to help keep peace in the region.

“We urge both sides to maintain direct communication to preserve regional stability,” Tommy Pigott, US Department of State spokesperson, said at the daily briefing.

He welcomed the “ceasefire” between India and Pakistan and commended Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for “choosing the path of peace” and showing “strength, wisdom, and fortitude”.

Pigott repeatedly stressed that the US is focused on two things regarding the India-Pakistan situation: the ceasefire and direct communications between the two countries.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump spoke on the issue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he is the first of this three-leg tour of West Asia. He repeated once again how he had used the lure of trade with the US to persuade the two countries to end hostilities.

Asked if Secretary of State Marco Rubio had received any commitments from Pakistan in his calls with Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Army Chief Asim Munir on rooting out terrorism, Pigott said, “I’m not going to talk about private diplomatic conversations. What I can say is to reiterate what we’ve been saying for a couple of days now is that we welcome the ceasefire reached between India and Pakistan this weekend, and we commend both prime ministers for choosing the path of peace. The President was very clear in terms of that. We also want to encourage direct communication between the parties. That is something we’ve also been clear about as well.”

On India’s refusal of the American offer of mediation, Pigott said, “Well, I’m not going to speculate on that. What I can say is that we encourage direct communication. We have been clear on that. We continue to encourage direct communication. The President has been clear on that. And the President, as I said, has also been clear in praising both prime ministers for choosing the path towards peace and the wisdom and fortitude that shows.”

He also offered no comments on reports of radiation leakage at Pakistani nuclear sites.

–IANS