Biden, Modi urge Pakistan to take action against militants

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have called on Pakistan to act to ensure that its territory is not used to launch militant attacks, the White House said in a joint statement.

"They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks," the White House said on Thursday.

There was no immediate reaction from Islamabad on the US-India statement.

Relations between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have been fraught for years.

Since British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent ended in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

India has for years accused Pakistan of helping rebels who have battled Indian troops in India-administered Kashmir since the late 1980s.

Pakistan denies the accusation and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination according to several UN resolutions.

Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India revoked Kashmir's limited autonomy in 2019 and annexed the region — move Pakistan calls illegal and wants it rolled back.

India's unilateral decision led the two countries to downgrade their diplomatic ties.

"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups" the joint statement said.

US-Pakistan ties

India under Modi has taken an increasingly hardline on Pakistan, announcing an air strike in 2019 in response to an attack by a Kashmiri suicide bomber in which some 40 Indian soldiers were killed.

Pakistan denied any role in the attack and maintained the entire episode was a "false flag" operation aimed to boost PM Modi's ratings in elections.

In response to the air raid by India in Pakistan's Balakot area, Pakistan said it shot down two Indian jets and arrested a pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, who was later released by then Imran Khan's government in a goodwill gesture.

The United States historically has been a close partner of Pakistan but its accusation that Islamabad's powerful military and intelligence apparatus had been supporting Afghanistan's Taliban saw Washington downgrade its ties with Islamabad.

The Biden administration has kept Pakistan at arm's length since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, in contrast to warming relations with India.