The U.S. has said that it does not endorse Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s contention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy strengthened the Pakistan-China relationship and that it was for the countries in question to speak for themselves.
“ I will leave it to the Pakistanis and the PRC to speak to their relationship. I certainly would not – would not endorse those remarks,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said when asked for a reaction to Mr. Gandhi’s comments in Parliament on Wednesday. The former Congress president and MP had said that the government’s foreign policy had brought China and Pakistan together.
Mr. Price also said that there was no requirement as far as the U.S. was concerned for other countries to choose between America and China and that the U.S. valued its relationship with Pakistan.
“ We’ve made the point all along that it is not a requirement for any country around the world to choose between the United States and China. It is our intention to provide choices to countries when it comes to what the relationship with the United States looks like,” Mr. Price said in response to a question on whether Pakistan was working closely with China because it felt “abandoned” by the U.S.
“ Pakistan is a strategic partner of the United States. We have an important relationship with the government in Islamabad, and it’s a relationship that we value across a number of fronts,” he said.