Reduction in India, Pakistan tension suits all parties:US State Department spokesman John Kirby

WASHINGTON: The US has said that a reduction in tension between India and Pakistan suits all parties and both the countries should work together to attain those common challenges faced by them.

"Reduction (in tension between India and Pakistan) is what we're all after and I think suits all parties," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.

Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over phone as part of his effort to reduce tension between the two countries.

"I don't know that Secretary Kerry would credit his one phone call for some new trend in security relations. But it is important to him to continue to have a dialogue with his counterparts in India and in Pakistan because the issues are so important to regional stability," he said.

"I think it's safe to say that you can continue to see him engaged on this, and there'll be more dialogue. And we've seen the tensions rise and fall over time. You've seen this," Kirby said.

"Secretary Kerry was clear when he spoke about this a couple of weeks ago to all of you that relations between India and Pakistan are important to us," the spokesman said.

It's an important region with lots of challenges, lots of common challenges that both countries can continue to work on, he added.

"But many of them - all of them - need to be worked on between India and Pakistan, and we'd like to see those tensions reduced," Kirby said.