External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar is sparing no effort to ensure that the US and other countries turn their focus also on anti-India terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The EAM utilized his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday to highlight New Delhi’s concerns about the “continued presence” of these terror outfits in Afghanistan, The Daily Guardian has learnt. Jaishankar held talks with Blinken on the margins of an ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. Jaishankar has already told the global community from the forum of SCO in Tashkent that zero-tolerance for terrorism in all manifestations is a must.
The issue of terrorism figured prominently during the interactions between Jaishankar and Blinken, and also at the ASEAN FMs’ meet in the Cambodian capital. The ‘terror risk’ from the soil of Afghanistan also figured during the talks as the meeting came just a few days after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul, sources said, adding, “The Indian foreign minister brought up the issue about the risk of Afghanistan turning into a safe haven for several terror outfits including those conspiring to target India.” Cross-border terror threats from Pakistan and Afghanistan was highlighted by the Indian foreign minister, sources added. “The US and other nations of the global community should keep their focus also on LeT, JeM,” sources said. “Jaishankar sought the global community’s attention towards this,” sources added.
Sources say that the US is unhappy with the Taliban over the fact that they continued to accord freedom to al-Qaeda which is operating from Afghan soil. There might be some more action from the US against the Haqqani network terror outfit. John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, dropped some hints, saying that the dreaded Haqqani network terror outfit was aware of the al-Qaeda chief’s presence in Kabul. “What he stopped short of announcing was that the Biden administration will go hard on this network in days to come. Some hints have been given to the Indian diplomats by the US officials in Cambodia as well,” officials say.
Sharing the information about bilateral talks between Jaishankar and Blinken, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said that the two leaders exchanged views on global and regional issues. Sources further said, “The regional issues included the issue of terrorism from the soil of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the stress on the need for the global community to take strong steps to rein in the terrorists.” After the meeting, Jaishankar tweeted that he had a “warm conversation” with Blinken, during which they discussed the “ever strengthening India-US relationship and the global situation”.