US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the recent strengthening of the relationship with Pakistan has not affected ties with India.
To a query during a press briefing in Washington on Saturday, he said that the US relations with Pakistan have not come at the cost of its ties with India, which are deep, historic, and important.
According to the media reports, Marco Rubio said that the US was well aware of Indian concerns due to its history of sour relationship with Pakistan. But, India should understand that the US would have to keep good relations with a lot of different countries, he said, adding that the US saw an opportunity to expand the strategic relationship with Pakistan to work on things of common interest.
Even before the start of Pakistan and India conflict in May, the US had already reached out to Islamabad as it was interested in rebuilding a strategic partnership, he stated.
US Secretary of State said that it was a very encouraging thing that the US relationship with Pakistan had strengthened. He said the US and Pakistan could work together on a number of things. He said the US had a long history of partnering with Pakistan on counterterror and things of that nature. “We’d like to expand it beyond that, if possible, and understanding that there’ll be some difficulties and some challenges,” he said.
Pak-US relations have seen great momentum this year, moving toward stronger political, economic, and strategic cooperation across trade, investment, industry, and energy.
