New York: Defence Secretary Ashton Carter laid out US administration’s stance vis-à-vis India and Pakistan, saying Washington has “much more to do” with Delhi today than with Islamabad.

He clearly outlined US stance vis-a-vis the South Asian neighbours in reply to a question about the impact of the closer India-US relationship on Pakistan. “The days are gone when we only deal with India as the other side of the Pakistan coin, or Pakistan as the other side of the India coin. I know that there are those in India and Pakistan who are still glued to that way of thinking. But the US put that behind us some time ago,” Carter told a gathering at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“With respect to Pakistan, that also is an important security partner. A whole lot of issues of which counter-terrorism looms largest. And we work with the Pakistanis all the time on that,” Carter said. “We are long past the point in US policy-making where we look at the India-Pakistan dyad as the whole story for either one of them. We have much more to do with India today than has to do with Pakistan,” he added.

“There is important business with respect to Pakistan, but we have much more, a whole global agenda with India, agenda that covers all kinds of issues,” Carter said.

“With respect to Pakistan totally different. We have a big set of issues having to do with the border with Afghanistan where we continue to operate, with terrorism, both on the territory of Pakistan and also obviously cross-border into Afghanistan, including affecting US service members there,” he said.

Carter acknowledged that he would be asked about Pakistan during his India visit (starting today).

“I’m sure I’ll be asked about it in India, but I think the first thing one needs to say from an American policy point of view, these are both respected partners and friends. They find themselves in very different situations,” Carter said.