Washington D.C [US], Dec 19 (ANI): India has "rightful concern" about terrorism emanating from Pakistan, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday (local time).

"We understand the concerns, too, that India has...rightful concerns that they have about terrorism emanating from Pakistan, and we assured them that we would take that into account," he said while responding to a question on Afghanistan.

"We are hopeful that all of the relevant political participants in Afghanistan, the Afghan Government, non-Afghan government leaders inside of Afghanistan, the Taliban, we are hopeful they will all conclude that the right answer is a significant reduction in violence leading to a ceasefire and a set of negotiations amongst and between the Afghan people and their leaders such that the United States can reduce its footprint while continuing to ensure that the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan to the homeland here in the United States has a greatly reduced risk," he added.

India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stressed that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.

"Of course we are concerned about the future of Afghanistan, which is why we've had a large development assistance program there. We believe that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. We have every confidence that the gains which have been achieved by the international community over the last two decades will be protected and preserved in that process," said Jaishankar.

Earlier, during his opening remarks at the press conference, mentioned the risks that Chinese-built communication networks pose to "treasured freedoms".

"And on China, we discussed the risks that Chinese-built communication networks, including 5G, pose to our treasured freedoms and how China's unfair and predatory economic activity in the Indo-Pacific presents a risk to those very freedoms," he said.

"On Iran, we discussed the maximum pressure campaign and why it's necessary for getting the outlaw regime in Tehran to behave like a normal nation," said Pompeo. (ANI)

