Pakistan has handed over a demarche to the US deputy chief of mission regarding the June 22 joint statement of US-India, which demanded the country take action against terrorism.

“Pakistan’s concerns and disappointment at the unwarranted, one-sided and misleading references to it in the Joint Statement were conveyed to the US side,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

The statement from the United States and India was released after a meeting between the two countries’ leaders at the White House on Friday. They called on Pakistan to “take immediate action” to ensure that its territory is not used to launch “extremist attacks.”

In reaction, the FO had described it “as unwarranted, one-sided, and misleading”. The FO was of the view that the reference was contrary to diplomatic norms and has political overtones.

“It was stressed that the United States should refrain from issuing statements that may be construed as an encouragement of India’s baseless and politically motivated narrative against Pakistan,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement.

“It was also emphasized that counter-terrorism co-operation between Pakistan and the US had been progressing well and that an enabling environment, centred around trust and understanding, was imperative to further solidifying Pakistan-US ties.”

A spokesperson for the US embassy did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been fraught for years. Since independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

Pakistan’s army claimed on Saturday that two civilians were killed by Indian forces in firing across the line of control, the de facto border in Kashmir, the first such conflict since a ceasefire in 2021 between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.

India says Pakistan has helped militants who have battled Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s. Pakistan denies the accusation and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination.

(With input from Reuters)