WASHINGTON: US States department Deputy Spokesperson, Mark Toner said on Monday that Pakistan and India really stand to benefit from the normalization of relations and practical cooperation between them.

He said that we encourage both India and Pakistan to pursue and engage in direct dialogue that is aimed at reducing tensions.

Answering a question, at his briefing, Mark Toner said that Pakistan is fighting a serious and sustained campaign against violent extremism. We do believe that they are making progress and taking steps to counter terrorist violence, but at the same time we have been very clear that they need to target all militant groups, including those that target Pakistan’s neighbours and close all safe havens.

“Our focus with Pakistan is to enhance their capability to deal with a terrorist threat on their soil,” Mark Toner said and added that we want to see Pakistan better able to respond to the terrorism threat.

To a question regarding recent Pakistan-Russian military exercises, he said that they were not part of “great game”.

“We are pursuing very close relations with India. We have a deep and broad bilateral relationship and multilateral relationship, but – or work our multilateral issues with India. They are the world’s largest democracy and we share, I think, a very similar vision of the world. And we obviously have very close trade and economic ties with India, and also that extends to security cooperation”.

Toner said that the USA wants to see Pakistan better able to respond to the threat that terrorism poses both domestically for Pakistan but also the fact that there are terrorist groups that seek refuge or asylum or shelter in Pakistan’s territory.—INP