Pakistan and Afghanistan need to work together to effectively overcome the Taliban challenge, the White House said on Friday.
“The conclusion that we’ve drawn here is…that the Taliban poses a security threat to both countries, and that the nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan are going to be able to more effectively confront that threat if they’re able to more effectively cooperate,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told the reporters.
Earnest said the US has long been supportive of the reconciliation process between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
He said that US is hoping to facilitate better co-operation between the two South Asian neighbours.
As part of that role, US vice president Joe Biden held a tri-lateral meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Davos on Thursday to discuss the recent reconciliation efforts.
During the meeting, Biden reaffirmed US support for reconciliation and improved bilateral ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Any sort of decisions about how the continuation of those talks and any sort of agreement that could be produced by those talks about whether or not that’s in the interest of those countries to pursue – those are decisions that will be made by the leaders in those two countries, as it should be,” he said.
