Stress on communication between both countries.
US State Department Spokesperson John Kirby neither confirmed nor denied India’s claim on “surgical strikes” on terror camps in Pakistan. “Surgical strikes” is purportedly the response from the Indian government to avenge the killing of 18 Indian soldiers in Uri, Kashmir.
In a Press briefing on Thursday, Kirby responded to questions from journalists on India’s claim to have carried “surgical strikes” in retaliation to Pakistan’s terror attack that targeted an Indian Army camp in Uri, earlier this month, a transcript of which was made available by the US State Department, with some gaps in the entire speech as audio was not completely clear.
“We’ve seen those reports. We’re following the situation closely, as I think you can understand. We also understand that the Indian and Pakistani militaries have been in communication. We believe that continued communication is obviously important to reduce tensions.”
Kirby continued: “We’ve repeatedly expressed our concerns regarding the danger that terrorism poses to the region. And we all know that terrorism, in many ways, knows no border.”
Responding to a question, if India consulted US before the “surgical strikes”, as pointed out in some media reports that Secretary Kerry spoke to his counterpart in India, Kirby responded:
“I can confirm for you that the Secretary [Kerry] spoke with the – on the 27th, so earlier this week, with Indian External Affairs Minister Swaraj and reiterated his strong condemnation of the September 18th Uri attack. He condemned terrorism in all its forms and he cautioned against any escalation in tensions.”
In response to a follow-up question on whether the recent attack was an escalation, Kirby said, “I’m not going to characterize it. Obviously, it’s – I mean, obviously an attack like that escalates tensions. But what I don’t want to do is try to get into some sort of broad characterization, one way or the other. But obviously an attack like this is horrific.”
Kirby, however, was interrupted by a journalist to clarify if the “surgical attack” was the one that Secretary Kerry warned against.
The spokesperson again circumvented the “surgical strike” issue by saying that he was not commenting on it.
“Oh, I thought you were talking about the Uri attack,” he clarified.
Kirby concluded by saying:
“Well, look again we- our message to both sides has been the same, in terms of encouraging them to increase communication to deal with this threat and to avoid steps that escalate the tensions. And I’m – I think I’m not going to get into characterizing each and every step along the way there. But obviously, what we want to see is increased cooperation against what is a very shared common threat for both countries, and to see steps being taken to deal with it by all sides.”
On a question that whether any high-level calls were made to or from the leadership in Pakistan, Kirby said that he had no such calls to announce.
India has claimed that it carried “surgical strikes”, military raids, inside Pakistan and that Indian soldiers have killed more than 50 terrorists in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan, however, denies any such strike by the Indian Army.
Islamabad, though, has admitted that there was some cross-border firing from Indian forces and that they have captured one Indian soldier who was trying to sneak into Pakistan. India acknowledged its captured soldier but said that he was not a part of the team that raided Pakistan during “surgical strikes”. A media statement from the Army headquarters explained, “Such inadvertent crossing by Army and civilians are not unusual on either side. They are returned through existing mechanisms.”
(This story has been updated on 9/30/2016).
1 Comment
OK, well, if India says it attacked and was happy about it, and Pakistan says they’re happy because India barely attacked and was repelled, then there shouldn’t be a problem. Return the 1 soldier and everyone is happy.