India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale meets Mike Pompeo as India ramps up diplomatic efforts amidst Indo-Pak tensions

India’s Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale met US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo in Washington DC Monday as India ramps up diplomacy to push the US to investigate the claim that Pakistan used F-16s against India in the conflict after the Balakot strikes on 26 February. Gokhale’s visit caps an entire week of Indian officials meeting political operatives in US Congress to tell the story about Pakistan using F-16s in its offensive against India, including after the recent attack in Pulwama. On 14 February, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir, killing 44 of them in the deadliest attack in decades on security forces in the region. Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack. On 26 February, India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant base inside Pakistan at Balakot. A 26 February statement by Gokhale describes the Balakot airstrikes as a “non-military preemptive action” against the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terrorist outfit responsible for the Pulwama attack. It says India’s “pre-emptive strike” was necessitated on the basis of “credible intelligence” of another imminent attack by the JeM, and condemned Pakistan for its failure to dismantle terrorist camps on its soil. [caption id=“attachment_6239431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale meets Mike Pompeo in Washington D.C on 11 March, 2019. Pic courtesy: Indian Embassy, USA.[/caption] A statement today from the Indian Embassy in Washington confirmed that Gokhale and Pompeo spoke about the Pulwama attack on Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Gokhale “apprised Secretary Pompeo about recent developments in this regard”. Gokhale and Pompeo also assessed the continuum of bilateral connect after the first ever Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue in September 2018. “Secretary Pompeo expressed his understanding of India’s concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory. They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable”, says a statement from the Indian Embassy in Washington DC.