WASHINGTON - Reacting to the killing of another Pakistani soldier by Indian troops on Thursday in the disputed Kashmir region, the United States again called for an India-Pakistan dialogue to de-escalate the ongoing tensions.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said that it had still not received any complaint from India over the alleged January 8 incident in which New Delhi claimed that two of its soldiers were killed. Pakistan, according the UN Spokesman, filed a complaint with the United Nations Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which monitors the ceasefire in Kashmir, on January six and it was being investigated. Replying to a question about continuing tensions between India and Pakistan, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, “We have talked about our concerns regarding this violence along the Line of Control for a number of days here. We have made representations to both governments, urging them to work together to determine the best course of action.”
The United States, she said, strongly supports the two South Asian neighbours’ “continued high-level dialogue that they are engaged in”.
“That is the best way to work through these issues and end the violence and move back to where we had been, where we had a warming certainly on the economic side, which we hoped would lead to warming on other sides as well,” the spokesperson said. “We are all for peace and what is important is that the governments are talking,” she said, in response to another question.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had instructed American Ambassadors in Pakistan and India to work with the two governments as part of efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, stemming from clashes along the Line of Control.
State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Washington has urged calm and counseled both Pakistan and India to talk to each other to sort out the tensions. Commenting on the Pakistani proposal to have UN involvement in investigating the Line of Control incident, the spokesperson said if the two South Asian neighbours show interest in getting UN support, Washington would back such a move but at the moment the US is asking them to work with each other.