US: Don't endorse Rahul's comment on China-Pak nexus

New Delhi, February 3

The US has said it does not endorse Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim that PM Narendra Modi’s foreign policy had strengthened the Pakistan-China relationship.

History lessons in order

Rahul alleged in LS it is this govt which brought Pak and China together. Perhaps, some history lessons are in order: In 1963, Pak illegally handed over Shaksgam valley to China; China built the Karakoram highway through PoK in 1970s; from the 1970s, the two countries also had close nuclear collaboration; In 2013, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor started. So, ask yourself: were China and Pakistan distant then? — S Jaishankar, EAM

The US valued its relationship with Pakistan, which was its strategic partner, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said, adding that it was for the countries in question to speak for themselves.

“I certainly will not endorse those remarks,” he said, when asked to comment on Rahul’s observation in Parliament on Wednesday that the government’s foreign policy was a failure because it had brought China and Pakistan together. “Pakistan is a strategic partner of the US. We have an important relationship with the Islamabad government and it’s a relationship that we value across a number of fronts,” he said. —