WASHINGTON - US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has stated that the United States values its relationships with both Pakistan and India.
In response to the meeting between Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistani leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Miller emphasised that the US maintained bilateral relations with both countries. He added that the scope and nature of any discussions between the two nations was a matter for Pakistan and India to decide among themselves.
Both Pakistan and India witnessed their usually contentious relations ease during the SCO Council of Heads of Government Summit that welcomed top leaders of member countries in the federal capital.
India, ensuring its participation in the high-level summit, sent its External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who termed the event as a “productive meeting”, soon after his speech on October 16.
Jaishankar, who attended the SCO moot held in Islamabad, was the first foreign minister of the neighbouring country to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade. “Signed eight outcome documents. India made a positive and constructive contribution to the deliberations,” he wrote on X.
While departing from Islamabad after the regional event, Jaishankar thanked PM Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and the government for the “hospitality and courtesies”. Relations between the two countries have witnessed periods of thaw from time to time but have been largely strained since Islamabad downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi in 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370 — revoking special status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). Pakistan has linked its decision to normalising ties with India with the restoration of the special status of the IIOJK. Despite the frosty ties, the two countries agreed to renew the 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in February 2021.