"...we've continued to try to do everything we can to drive home the point that those kind of violent extremist groups harboured in Pakistan are as big a threat to Pakistan's future and its stability as to anyone else," US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said on Friday.
Burns maintained that the Pakistan-based LeT not only threatens India and the US, but also poses an equally dangerous threat to the future of Pakistan.
He stated this in response to a question after delivering his remarks on 'The United States and India: A Vital Relationship in a Changing World' at the Center for American Progress.
Burns also observed that the Obama administration is encouraged by the improvement in Indo-Pak ties. "Certainly with regard to Pakistan and India we've been encouraged by some of the steps that those two countries have taken in recent years to normalise trade, toward visa liberalisation. I think that's in both of their interests, and we have welcomed it," said Burns, who was recently in India.
On the US ties with Pakistan, he said the relationship "is a very important one but also a very complicated one."
Turning to Saudi Arabia, Burns said that a very important part of the US relationship with Riyadh has been on counter-terrorism issues and about the importance of acting together against violent extremists around the world.
"That's the concern (about extremist groups) that we've continued to try to drive home. It is one that we ought to share not only with India but with Saudi Arabia, with Pakistan, many other governments. I think we've made progress on those issues, certainly in working with some of the Gulf Arabs, but there's a lot more work that needs to be done," he said.