Taking a jibe at the United States and Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that both nations have a history, and a history of “overlooking” that history, as he referred to the increasing closeness between them and reminded the US that Abbottabad was the hideout of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“They have a history with each other. And they have a history of overlooking their history. It is the same military that went into Abbottabad (in Pakistan) and found who (Bin Laden) there?” Jaishankar said in reply to a question about the growing cosiness between the US and Pakistan after the latter’s recent military conflict with India.
Referring to the 2011 killing of Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, Jaishankar said the same military that Trump now trusts had once sheltered the terrorist in their own house.
The US invited Pakistan’s Field Marshal General Asim Munir for a meeting with Trump last month, in a rare instance where a country’s military chief was exclusively invited by a sitting US President. This was the first meeting of its kind between a top Pakistani military chief and a sitting US President since India’s Operation Sindoor.
“The issue is, when countries are very focussed on doing the politics of convenience, they keep trying to do such things. Obviously, I respond to the situation or the challenge of the day, but I also do so, always keeping in mind the larger structural strengths of the relationship, the confidence that comes from it. So, I take it in that spirit,” Jaishankar added.
In recent months, America’s ties with India have been strained, also due to the ongoing tariff war between the two countries.
US President Donald Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports, along with an additional 25 per cent levy on purchases of Russian oil.
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