US and UN Welcome India-Pakistan Joint Agreement on Ceasefire This is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia, which is in our shared interest, and we encourage both countries to keep building upon this progress, the White House said.
The Indian and the Pakistani flags. Credit: Reuters
World26/Feb/2021
New Delhi: The US has welcomed the joint statement of India and Pakistan to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and other sectors, saying it is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also said at her daily news conference on Thursday that the Biden administration remains closely engaged with a range of leaders and officials in the region, including those in Pakistan.
Representative Image | Prakash Singh/AFP
The United States and the United Nations on Thursday welcomed India and Pakistan’s announcement of a ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control, calling it a positive step that will encourage dialogue between the two neighbouring countries.
“This is a positive step towards greater peace and stability in South Asia, which is in our shared interest,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing. “And we encourage both countries to keep building upon this progress.”
Responding to a question about whether Pakistan was doing enough to combat terrorism, Psaki said the US remained closely engaged with leaders from the country. “But in terms of an assessment of that, I would point you to the State Department or the intelligence department,” she added.
After a year of some of the worst fighting on India’s frontiers with Pakistan and China, all three countries are suddenly talking peace as they wait to see how President Joe Biden will shift policy in the region. India and China’s top diplomats on Thursday discussed plans to disengage troops from their Himalayan border, which last year saw the deadliest clashes since the 1970s. The phone call between Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, which stretched for more than an hour, came shortly after India and Pakistan released a rare joint statement by senior army officials announcing a halt in operations along their border.
India and Pakistan have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) and other sectors, according to a joint statement on Thursday. The decision on ceasefire, effective since Wednesday midnight, was taken at a meeting between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan. The DGMOs held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact and reviewed the situation along the Line of Control and all other sectors in a free, frank and cordial atmosphere . In the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the two DGMOs agreed to address each other s core issues and concerns which have propensity to disturb peace and lead to violence.