`US alignment with Pakistan a Cold War notion`

An influential US Congressman noted that Pakistan has always backed the Taliban to gain strategic depth against India.

Washington: Noting that Pakistan has always backed the Taliban to gain strategic depth against India, an influential US Congressman has said that Washington`s alignment with Islamabad is an obsolete Cold War notion that does not fit today`s geopolitics.

In a statement, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, argued that in a regional context, it has been a mistake to support Pakistan which "has always backed the Taliban as its vanguard for the conquest of Afghanistan, a strategy to gain strategic depth against India”.

Rohrabacher is chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

"The Pakistan alignment is an obsolete Cold War notion that does not fit today`s geopolitics," he said.

"China is allied with Pakistan against India as well as against us," he added.
"We need to strengthen our ties to democratic New Delhi. We should also encourage Russia to do more to block the Taliban jihad to protect its own lands from the spread of radical Islam," Rohrabacher said.

Early this week, Rohrabacher was denied entry into Afghanistan by its President, Hamid Karzai, who personally reached out to the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express his objections.

PTI

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