On Afghanistan, Pak has to line up on broad majority of international community: Blinken

Washington, Sep 14: Pakistan needs to line up with a broad majority of the international community regarding Afghanistan, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken has said.

Pakistan has a multiplicity of interests, including somewhat are clear in conflict with that of the US, Blinken said. Blinken was testifying before the Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan. He said that India's involvement in Afghanistan has influenced some detrimental actions by Pakistan.

"What we have to look at is an insistence that every country, to include Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban led government if it is to receive any legitimacy of any kind or any support. So Pakistan needs to line up with a broad majority of the international community in working toward those ends and in upholding those expectations," Blinken also said.

"Prime Minister Khan claimed Afghanistan had broken the shackles of slavery. So we used to always hear diplomatically that we have a complicated relationship with Pakistan. I would say it's often duplicitous," US law maker Bill Keating said during the testimony.

"When it comes to Afghanistan, it's focused, of course as well, on, on India and the role that India is playing in Afghanistan, and it looks at it through that prism as well. All of these things, I think, have influenced what it has done on many occasions detrimental to our interests. On other occasions in support of those interests," Blinken added.