Washington, US: India-Pakistan relationship is critical to achieving peace and stability in South Asia, the US has said, as it asserted that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack be brought to justice.
The State Department Deputy spokesperson, Mark Toner said at the UN that India-Pakistan relationship is “absolutely critical to achieving peace and stability in South Asia.”
Responding to another question, Toner said the US wants that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, that left 166 people dead, to be brought to justice.
“President Obama stated the Mumbai perpetrator’s financiers, sponsors, must be held accountable for their crimes. We continue to follow the criminal proceedings closely, and urge additional actions to prevent such an attack from ever happening again. And recognize that this was a terrible tragedy for India,” Toner said.
Noting that the relationship between India and the US is strong and growing, he said, “As President Obama said, India has the potential to be one of the great global powers in the 21st century. So, we want to see our cooperation deepen, both economically, politically and on security issues as well.”
“In general, we want to see better, stronger, closer counter-terrorism cooperation, not only between the US and India, but of all the countries in the region, including Pakistan. We all need to be on our guard. We all need to be vigilant. We all need to cooperate and share information and intelligence where we can do that, in order to prevent future attacks,” Toner said.