Obama asks Pak to punish Pathankot attack perpetrators

Treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11, President Barack Obama today sent out a clear message to Pakistan, asking it to punish its perpetrators amid the US vow to stand with India against terror threats from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and Dawood "company".
"They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice," a joint statement issued after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.
During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

"They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them," the statement said.
During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as "al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations."
"In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of US-India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group," the statement said.

"Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information," it said.

Acknowledging that it is clear to all that many terrorist
groups operate in Pakistan, he said the US continues to work with the Pakistani government in this regard.
"It's clear to all that many terrorist groups operate in Pakistan. The Pakistani government and the Pakistani security apparatus confronts and fights and is trying to diminish terrorist strengths in Pakistan.
"But clearly Pakistani government has prioritised its fight against the groups that target Pakistan first and has placed less priority on the terrorist groups that target Pakistan's neighbours," Lavoy said.
"We have been clear to Pakistan and I believe has India and Afghanistan, Pakistan's other neighbour, that Pakistan cannot, should not, must not discriminate between terrorist groups. It must view all terrorist groups as its enemy and must fight all terrorism indiscriminately," he said.

"We continue to work with Pakistan, encourage them to do so, and have offered to help with our capacity and willingness to do so."
On India's NSG membership, he said: "I think that for the Nuclear Suppliers Group the prospect of admitting a new member that is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a very, very big deal. One of the requirements for membership is to be a member of the NPT."
The NSG over the last year has been undertaking a very, very intensive process to continue procedures for many non-NPT members such as India, he added.

"The US government, President Obama has been very clear that India is ready for membership now and we believe that India's admission into NSG as a full regular member will be important and benefit the group and would also strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime," Lavoy said.
The top White House official saidthe US declaring India as a major defence partner is a sign of success of India US partnership over the course of this administration.
Referring to three visits of US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter to India, he said this underscores America's commitment to elevate the defence co-operation with India even at this time of transition.

"In 2016, US and India conducted six major military exercises and defence trade with India has grown to over USD 15 billion over the course of the Administration. No matter what indicator you identify, it truly has the feature of a major defence partnership," he said.
Having Major Defence Partner title what will be realised is that the efforts under the defence trade and technology initiatives (DTTI) much co-operation has begun, and efforts have been made on both sides in co-developing, in developing together new defence technologies including very advanced technologies, the applications of which will be evident in the years to come, he said.

"I think you will see that the seeds planted over the course of last eight years which has materialised in very noticeable ways also will continue to materialise in ways that will be apparent in the years to come," Lavoy observed.
The official refrained from responding to a question on India's request for armed drones from the US. "I do not want to speak about any particular defence deal that is being considered. That will be the purview of the next Administration," he said.