US National Security Council rejects Pakistan's concerns on Delhi-Kabul nexus
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US National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton dismissed Islamabad's concerns over growing India-Afghanistan ties, terming them an "excuse", according to Politico.
"What India is doing in Afghanistan is not a threat to Pakistan," he claimed. "They’re not building military bases. They’re not deploying troops. They’re not doing the things that would constitute encirclement, for lack of a better term, which is one of the things that the Pakistanis complain about," he alleged.
The NSC spokesperson claimed that Trump had benefited from an outsider's perspective on the Pak-US relationship, Politico reported, by foregoing 'conventional wisdom' that "however much the Pakistanis double-deal you and lie to you and don’t cooperate, you have no choice but to just keep the status quo."
"How do we get the Pakistan to behave better? The answer is we have leverage points over Pakistan that the strategy contemplates we will use. Ultimately whether they behave better or not is completely up to them," Anton said.